Close Hall

Last updated
Close Hall
Close Hall, State University - History of Iowa.jpg
LocationDubuque Street and Iowa Avenue
Iowa City, Iowa, 52240 United States
OwnerUniversity of Iowa
& Iowa City
OperatorUniversity of Iowa
Construction
Opened1890
Closed1968
Demolished1970
Tenants
The Daily Iowan newspaper
YMCA & YWCA
University Physical Education
University Men's Basketball

Close Hall is a former multi-purpose facility on the campus of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, United States, that was opened in 1890 and demolished between 1968 and 1970. In 1896, Close Hall hosted the first collegiate five-on-five basketball game.

Contents

Construction

Made of brick, construction of the building began in 1888 and completed in 1890 on land owned jointly by the university and Iowa City. The cost of construction was supplemented through a contribution of $10,000 by Mrs. Helen S. Close in order for the YM-YWCA to be completed.

The three-story building was the site of the first five-on-five college basketball game in 1896. The basement of the building housed the women's gymnasium as well as industrial chemistry labs. The first floor contained offices and recitation rooms, while the second floor housed literary societies as well as additional offices. [1] The building became the first home of the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team in its early years. The team would move to the first Iowa Armory in 1905.

Eventually the building would become the school of journalism for the University of Iowa and would house the campus typesetting machines and printing presses. It would be from these presses that The Daily Iowan, The Hawkeye, Frivol, Iowa Literary Magazine, The Transit and The Journal of Business would be printed. Close Hall would remain the home of the school of journalism as well as the university press room until the late 1950s.

Fire, rebuild and demolition

On January 1, 1940, Close Hall had a devastating fire that caused irreparable damage. The building was reconstructed as a one-story building and maintained as the school of journalism and university publishing. After the university publishing left, Close Hall became an underused, gaudy building on a valuable piece of property. The university officially closed the building in 1968 and over the course of the following two years demolished the structure.

Today, the University of Iowa's Biology Building East stands on the Close Hall former site at Dubuque Street and Iowa Avenue. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Missouri–Kansas City</span> Public research university in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.

The University of Missouri–Kansas City is a public research university in Kansas City, Missouri. UMKC is part of the University of Missouri System and has a medical school. For the 2023-2024 academic year, the university's enrollment was over 15,300 students. It is the largest university and third largest college in the Kansas City metropolitan area. It offers more than 125 degree programs over 11 academic units. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of South Dakota</span> Public university in Vermillion, South Dakota, U.S.

The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship university for the state of South Dakota and the state's oldest public university. It occupies a 274 acres (1.11 km2) campus located in southeastern South Dakota, approximately 63 miles (101 km) southwest of Sioux Falls, 39 miles (63 km) northwest of Sioux City, Iowa, and north of the Missouri River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand View University</span> Private liberal arts university in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.

Grand View University is a private liberal arts university in Des Moines, Iowa. Founded in 1896 and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the university enrolls approximately 2,000 students and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marycrest College Historic District</span> Historic district in Iowa, United States

Marycrest College Historic District is located on a bluff overlooking the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The district encompasses the campus of Marycrest College, which was a small, private collegiate institution. The school became Teikyo Marycrest University and finally Marycrest International University after affiliating with a Japanese educational consortium during the 1990s. The school closed in 2002 because of financial shortcomings. The campus has been listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties and on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004. At the time of its nomination, the historic district consisted of 13 resources, including six contributing buildings and five non-contributing buildings. Two of the buildings were already individually listed on the National Register.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franklin Pierce University</span> Private university in Rindge, New Hampshire, US

Franklin Pierce University is a private university in Rindge, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded as Franklin Pierce College in 1962, combining a liberal arts foundation with coursework for professional preparation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carver–Hawkeye Arena</span> University of Iowa sports arena

The Carver–Hawkeye Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Iowa City, Iowa. Opened in 1983, it is the home court for The University of Iowa Hawkeyes men's and women's basketball teams, as well as the university's wrestling, and gymnastics teams. It was named for the late industrialist Roy J. Carver of Muscatine, Iowa, a prominent statewide booster, who donated $9.2 million to The University of Iowa before his death in 1981. Prior to the arena's opening, Iowa's athletic teams played at the Iowa Field House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pan American Center</span> Arena in New Mexico, United States

Pan American Center is a multi–purpose arena in Las Cruces, New Mexico, located on the campus of New Mexico State University. The arena has a current seating capacity of 12,515 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwich University</span> Military college in Northfield, Vermont, US

Norwich University – The Military College of Vermont is a private senior military college in Northfield, Vermont. It is the oldest private and senior military college in the United States and offers bachelor's and master's degrees on-campus and online. The university was founded in 1819 in Norwich, Vermont, as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It is the oldest of six senior military colleges and is recognized by the United States Department of Defense as the "Birthplace of ROTC".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East High School (Des Moines, Iowa)</span> Public secondary school in Des Moines, Iowa, United States

East High School, often locally referred to as East or East High, is a public secondary school located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. East is the oldest high school in the Des Moines metro and is part of the Des Moines Public Schools. East is currently the seventh largest high school in the state by enrollment with 2,076 students.

The Iowa State Daily is an independent student newspaper serving Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, that is published in print and online. It was founded in 1890, and is largely funded by advertising revenues. The Iowa State University Student Government helps pay for its distribution on campus.

<i>The Daily Iowan</i> University of Iowa student newspaper

The Daily Iowan is an independent, 6,500-circulation student newspaper serving Iowa City and the University of Iowa community. During the 2020–2021 academic year The Daily Iowan transitioned from printing daily to producing a print edition of the paper twice a week and publishing stories online daily. It has consistently won a number of collegiate journalism awards, including six National Pacemaker Awards in 2000, 2001, 2006, 2008, 2013, and 2020. The Daily Iowan was named Newspaper of the Year by the Iowa Newspaper Association four times, including in 2020 and 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iowa Field House</span> Stadium in Iowa, United States

The Iowa Field House is a multi-purpose arena in Iowa City, Iowa. Opened in 1927, it held up to 13,365 people at its height. At one time, it housed all Iowa athletic teams and coaching offices before the construction of additional facilities, most notably Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Field House was a regional site for the NCAA basketball tournament four times, in 1954, 1956, 1964 and 1966. The Iowa Wrestling team hosted the 1959 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the Field House.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rivermont Collegiate</span> Private school in Bettendorf, Iowa, United States

Rivermont Collegiate, formerly St. Katharine's/St. Mark's School, is a nonsectarian, independent, multicultural, college preparatory school for students two years old through twelfth grade, located in the Quad Cities in Bettendorf, Iowa, in the United States. Rivermont Collegiate is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), specifically the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB), Council for Advance and Support of Education (CASE), and the National Honor Society (NHS). The school currently resides on the former property of Joseph Bettendorf, namesake of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tilton School</span> School in Tilton, New Hampshire, United States

Tilton School is an independent, coeducational, college-preparatory school in Tilton, New Hampshire, serving students from 9th to 12th grade and postgraduate students. Founded in 1845, Tilton's student body in the 2021-22 academic year consisted of 61 day students and 129 boarding students. The typical student enrollment includes representation from 15-20 states and 10-15 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halifax City Hall</span> Historic building in Nova Scotia, Canada

Halifax City Hall is the home of municipal government in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Designed by architect Edward Elliot, and constructed for the City of Halifax between 1887 and 1890, it is one of the oldest and largest public buildings in Nova Scotia. The property was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1997.

The Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team is part of the University of Iowa athletics department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thaw Hall</span> United States historic place

Thaw Hall is a historic academic building on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh that is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District and has been named a Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmark. The five-story building of stone, brick, and terra cotta was completed in 1910 in the Neoclassical Beaux-Arts style by architect Henry Hornbostel and today serves as space for a variety of academic classrooms, labs, offices, and centers. It is located between, and connected to, the university's Old Engineering Hall and Space Research Coordination Center (SRCC) along O'Hara Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication</span> Journalism school at the University of Minnesota

The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication is a journalism school at the University of Minnesota that offers programs in journalism, strategic communication and mass communication. It is located on the Minneapolis campus. It houses around 800 undergraduates and more than 30 graduate students in a given academic year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bynum Hall</span> Historic building at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Bynum Hall is the current home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate Admissions office and was the first home of North Carolina Tar Heels men's basketball team. At an executive meeting on October 2, 1903, school President Francis Preston Venable announced that former North Carolina Supreme Court justice William Preston Bynum donated $25,000 to have a gymnasium built in honor of his grandson who was a student at the university and had died due to typhoid fever. Architect Frank P. Milburn drafted plans for the structure, which were then approved by Bynum and the university's board of trustees. The building was designed to have a Greek architecture influence and had three stories with an above-ground basement. It originally contained a swimming pool, gymnasium, office spaces, and other rooms for various sports like boxing and fencing. The building started construction by June 1904 and was completed by February 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosemary Hall (Greenwich, Connecticut)</span> United States historic place

Rosemary Hall was an independent girls school at Ridgeway and Zaccheus Mead Lane in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was later merged into Choate Rosemary Hall and moved to the Choate boys' school campus in Wallingford, Connecticut.

References

  1. University of Iowa Libraries University Archives
  2. "University Libraries | the University of Iowa".