Charles City, Iowa
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For further information, contact
Charles City Community Development
401 N. Main St., Charles City Iowa 50616.
(641) 228-2335
www.charlescitychamber.com
Charles City, Iowa
4th St.
So. Main St.
3rd St.
2nd St.
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5th St.
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Cedar St.
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A self-guided tour
brought to you by the
Charles City
Historic Preservation
Commission.
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8 th Ave.
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1. 409 North Main Street - Charles Theatre - c 1935 Designed by Wetherell and Harrison for General Theatre
Corporation of Des Moines directed by A.H. Blank. The
theater was recently purchased by the Charles City Arts
Council from the original owner. It remains a fine sample
of the art deco period work of the 1930’s and has been
remodeled inside to accommodate stage productions as well
as movies.
Freeman St.
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This brochure was developed by the
Charles City Historic Preservation Commission
This brochure made possible in part by
Charles City Hotel / Motel Tax.
Drawings courtesy of John Guthart.
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An audio narrated version of the tour
is available at Community Development
(401 N. Main Street) and at
www.charlescitychamber.com
free of charge.
2. 504 Blunt Street - c 1912 - Built for
Masons and affiliated bodies by Chas.
A. Dieman & Co., Cedar Rapids - Greek
Revival style - Doric portico on Greek
temple form; some decorations removed
from gable.
3. 405 Blunt Street - c 1907
- for Anson Brackett (contractor for the 2nd County Court
House - his father built the
first one, which burned down)
- copied from another home at
an unknown location. Another
owner, Deska Dodge, had a
mirror above her fireplace so that when the blinds and curtains were
open and were arranged in just the right way, she could keep track
of everyone passing on the street (and going to the funeral home)
without them being aware she was watching them.
4. 306 Kelly Street - c 1870 - for Ralph Waller (Banker & landowner) - Queen Anne gables and larger porches added in 1905.
5. 301 Joslin Street - c 1890
A.E. Ellis home - built as a
Queen Anne structure and
enlarged once in that style in
the 1890’s, later completely
redone in Colonial Revival
style - dormers were added
in 1950. It has a bidet in the
upstairs bathroom.
6. 301 Blunt Street - c 1865 - Gulwits
House - Gothic Revival Cottage style pedimented window trim; bargeboards;
shingles added and porch altered.
7. 205 Blunt Street - c 1941 for Joseph Salsbury (founder of Salsbury Labs) by Mortimer Cleveland - Georgian Style - note classical
symmetry - Local lore has this house being built for $39,000 in
1939, making it the 39-39 house.
8. 300 Ferguson Street - c 1896 - for parents of Carrie Lane
Chapman Catt. Built by CLCC for her mother after her father had
died. The 1896 City Directory lists Lucian Lane (CLCC’s dad) as
living at 302 Ferguson.
9. 301 Ferguson Street - moved from
100 block of Kelly in 1920s, divided in
two, and remodeled from original Victorian style - other half is still Victorian
and is on 4th Ave.
14. 106 Blunt Street - c 1912 for
George Blake by Mortimer Cleveland. Other Mortimer Cleveland
houses in the area can be found at
103 Blunt, 104 Blunt, 107 Blunt,
401 Kelly, 203 Ferguson, and 201
Riverside Drive which is a one story French Provincial style.
21. 401 Kelly Street - c 1915 – Built for C. F. Dinkel who was
a farm implement dealer; this house was designed by Mortimer Cleveland. Charlie Dinkel served as his own General
Contractor for the construction. All the receipts for materials
and services are in the possession of the family. The tree in
the front yard is supposedly bent from growing over the stable
yard fence that was there.
22. 402 Kelly Street - c 1870 Arthur Campbell (contractor and
architect) - Renaissance Revival
style - first house in the town made
of brick.
15. Suspension Bridge - c 1906 – 2008: A 270-foot clear span
bridge was built on this site to carry foot traffic between town and
the Chautauqua Grounds. Envisioned by C. W. (Charlie) Hart of
Hart-Parr, he contributed money and company resource to build
the bridge including bringing in students from Iowa State to design
and construct it under supervision of Hart-Parr’s Chief Engineer
O.B. Zimmerman. The historic Suspension Bridge was lost in the
2008 flood. The new cable-stayed bridge was designed to continue
to provide safe passage across the Cedar River and access to Lions
Field Park. On the east riverbank, Victory Park commemorates the
historic bridge and the epic floods of 2008.
For the next portion of the tour
enjoy the recreational trail along the river.
16. 201 Riverside Drive - c 1937 - for Merrill G. Smith, Sr. (lumberyard owner) by Wetherell & Harrison, Des Moines - Modified
English Half- timbered. The Smiths called the house “Rivermere.”
Many found it interesting that a man who owned a lumberyard
would build a house of brick and stone.
17. 301 Riverside Drive - c 1936 for Ray Fox, M.D. - English Halftimbered - Because Mrs. Fox had polio the house was built with
an elevator and as few steps as possible. The house cost $25,000
to build and $25,000 for an addition. It was built on the location
of an icehouse, which had an overpass across the road for moving
ice from the river to the storage facility. The icehouse displaced a
log cabin which was recycled by sliding it across the frozen river
and replacing it
at 1104 Court St.
(where it stands
today covered with
wood siding with
an east wing and
entryway added).
23. 301 Johnson Street - c 1869- (Richard) Miles Waller
home (one of the six original men who platted Charles City
in 1858) - Renaissance Revival style - remodeled to Colonial
Revival style in 1921 when Mrs. Ellis secured the home for
use as a Community House - Mrs. Ellis wanted there to be a
comfortable and stylish residence for single working women’s
groups to meet and socialize - there was a tennis court on the
west lawn - lighted. From the 1930’s through the late 1980’s
there were doctors, dentists and lawyers offices where the
family room and garage are now located.
24. 301 Jackson Street - c 1904 - built with $ 12,500 of
Carnegie Funds after public subscription raised $ 4,000 to
purchase the land - by Patton & Miller, Chicago, IL - Eclectic
style with rustic granite foundation. A rock, reputed to be a
locally found meteorite is on the south lawn. Currently it is
the Charles City Arts Center.
25. 305 Jackson Street - c 1903 - for H. J. Fitzgerald - Classic Revival - highly stylized Ionic columns; gambrel roof,
ornate woodwork. Heavily carved pool table was winched
up on pulleys to game room on the third floor to the delight
of a large crowd around 1915 - Mrs. Fitzgerald continued to
live alone in the house after her husband’s death. That caused
talk around town because she was living in a house that could
have accommodated many more people and there was an acute
housing shortage because of the war.
10. 207 Ferguson Street - may have been the Congregational
Parsonage at about the turn of the century. Suggested that this was
a Sears/Montgomery Ward mail-order house.
11. 203 Ferguson Street - c 1911- possible an early design of
Mortimer Cleveland prior to his Prairie School phase. This house
became one story shorter after extensive damage in the tornado of
1968. The porch you see was the second story porch. The house
was moved from 608 Wisconsin after the storm.
12. 102 Ferguson Street - c 1865 - Early style stone home; fan
shaped gable; deep paneled doorway; covered with stucco and
porches altered by C. R. Jones. Kannengeiser House - Kannengeiser’s had a furniture sales and undertaking establishment.
The family owned this house and the next two houses going east.
Several family members died of “consumption”, which was attributed to living among all
the trees on the property and
the close proximity to the river.
The houses were very difficult
to sell because of their reputation as “death houses” and all
but this one was eventually
torn down.
13. 100 Hulin Street - c 1902 - for Charles Henry Parr (co-founder
of Hart-Parr Company, manufacturers of the first gasoline farm
tractor). The Parrs lived in the house until they died in 1944 and
raised their six children there. The only change in appearance of
the home has been the addition of bedroom/bathroom on the back.
This home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
because of its association with Charlie Parr.
18. 1107 Court - c 1950 for Dr. Alvin Miller, DDS by Frank Lloyd
Wright - Wright never visited the site, but designed the house using
sight surveys and photographs. The blueprints included plans for an
additional house and dental office to be also built on the property.
The east wing was added from designs originally supplied by the
architect. The stone used for the addition was from the quarry of
the original stone.
19. 106 Iowa Street - c 1855 - NW corner of the house is a log cabin
- one of the first ten houses built in Charles City - Richard Miles
Waller’s Cabin and first home - one of the developers of Charles
City. Former location of the Charles City Bottling Works, 1950.
20. 306 Clark Street - c 1893 for John and Sarah Korinke. Their
daughters, Mary, Emma, and Edith inherited the house. Edith died
there in 1978 - third floor may be haunted - typical Queen Anne
style (steep roof, gables with scroll-work decoration, spindles,
towers, bay windows, double hung windows with two panes for
opening, high foundations often of limestone, horizontal siding
with wainscoting to accent).
Welcome to Charles City
26. 307 Jackson Street - c 1863 - for Milo Gilbert (first mayor
of Charles City - 1869) white limestone reputed to have been
mined in Waverly Hill - note window in east gable - original
porch was small and attached to south wing - porch modified
about 1910. Gilbert was a banker and had a sawmill at the
end of Kelly Street.
27. Central Park & Historic Timeline - c 1854 - Land for
a “public square” was given to the people of Charles City in
perpetuity by city founder Joseph Kelly and his wife, Malinda.
The space was redesigned in 2009. The compass design in the
center plaza indicates the park’s orientation. Beginning at the
center plaza, the timelines along the crosswalks tell the story
of four aspects of Charles City’s history and heritage: Industry
and Agriculture, Education, Arts and Architecture, and Main
Street. The art pieces at the corner entrances correspond with
the timeline themes.