College Corner Commercial Historic Business District

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College Corner Commercial Historic Business District
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Location Euclid Ave. between 2nd and 3rd Aves.
Des Moines, Iowa
Coordinates 41°37′39″N93°37′13″W / 41.62750°N 93.62028°W / 41.62750; -93.62028 Coordinates: 41°37′39″N93°37′13″W / 41.62750°N 93.62028°W / 41.62750; -93.62028
Area 2 acres (0.81 ha)
Architect Liebbe, Nourse & Rasmussen
Architectural style Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements
NRHP reference # 98000385 [1]
Added to NRHP April 23, 1998

The College Corner Commercial Historic Business District, also known as the Highland Park Historic Business District at Euclid and Second, is located in the north-central section of Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It is located in the Highland Park neighborhood that also includes the Highland Park Historic Business District at Euclid and Sixth Avenues. The College Corner historic district has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. [1]

Des Moines, Iowa Capital of Iowa

Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857. It is on and named after the Des Moines River, which likely was adapted from the early French name, Rivière des Moines, meaning "River of the Monks". The city's population was 217,521 as of the 2017 population estimate. The five-county metropolitan area is ranked 89th in terms of population in the United States with 634,725 residents according to the 2016 estimate by the United States Census Bureau, and is the second largest metropolitan area in the state after that of Omaha, Nebraska, which includes three counties in soutwest Iowa.

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Highland Park Historic Business District at Euclid and Sixth Avenues

The Highland Park Historic Business District at Euclid and Sixth Avenues is located in the north-central section of Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It is located on the border of the Oak Park and Highland Park neighborhoods. The commercial historic district has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998. The Highland Park neighborhood also includes the College Corner Commercial Historic Business District.

Contents

History

The name for the district reflect its proximity to Highland Park College, which later became Des Moines University after a merger with Des Moines College. [2] The college was founded in 1889 just after the Highland Park Land Company opened up this section of Des Moines for residential development. The College Corner commercial district was associated with the college’s professors and students who in general lived nearby and patronized the establishments at the intersection of Second and Euclid Avenues. The establishments included a drug store, restaurants, cafes, a bookstore and a tea room. Until 1919 the post office went back and forth between this commercial district and the one at Sixth Avenue. An Odd Fellows hall was moved here in 1907. A bank opened in the district in the early 1950s.

Odd Fellows fraternal service movement

Odd Fellows, or Oddfellows, also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship, is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London. The first known lodge was called Loyal Aristarcus Lodge No. 9, suggesting there were earlier ones in the 18th century. Notwithstanding, convivial meetings were held "in much revelry and, often as not, the calling of the Watch to restore order." Names of several British pubs today suggest past Odd Fellows affiliations. In the mid-18th century, following the Jacobite risings, the fraternity split into the rivaling Order of Patriotic Oddfellows in southern England, favouring William III of England, and the Ancient Order of Oddfellows in northern England and Scotland, favouring the House of Stuart.

The college was closed in 1929 and the business district continued to serve the residents of the neighborhood. The extension of the Second Avenue street car line in the early 20th century helped develop and sustain the neighborhood. In 1954 the college campus was sold to a developer who built Park Fair Shopping Center on the site. It was Iowa's first enclosed shopping center. [2] To an extent it drew customers away from the older business district.

Architecture

The College Corner Commercial Historic Business District is composed of seven buildings and an empty lot. [2] One the buildings, the Odd Fellows Hall, is three stories in height and stands at the corner of Second and Euclid. At the time it was built it was the tallest building in Des Moines outside of the central business district. [2] There are four two-story commercial buildings and two one-story buildings. The buildings are constructed of brick with the exception of the building at 208 Euclid, which is the oldest and the last two-story frame commercial building in the district. The structures in the historic district were built from the early 1890s through 1952.

The three buildings constructed in the 1890s are two-story brick buildings that feature bold cornice lines, segmental arched window hoods and narrow window openings. The storefronts on these buildings have a recessed entrance in the center, a square-cut transom above the door and large display windows on the sides. Two buildings were constructed in the first decade of the 20th century. Their features are simpler than the older buildings. Their main features are a parapet wall of corbelled brick, wider window openings and round arched window hoods. A very simple one-story building was built in the 1920s. It employed metal window frames and has a wider storefront. The last building was a single-story bank building completed in 1952 and is an example of utilitarian construction methods, which were adapted to deal with post-World War II building material shortages. It is also one of the first drive-in businesses in Des Moines. [2]

Cornice horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or furniture

A cornice is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or furniture element – the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 James E. Jacobsen. "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form-College Corner Commercial Historic Business District". National Park Service . Retrieved 2012-01-23. with photo(s)
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