The Palimpsest

Schacht, John N

A Time of Preparation

Dykstra, Robert R

Dr. Emerson's Sam: Black Iowans before the Civil War

Helene, Kathryn

And Young Men Fight Them

Schroder, Alan M

Former Homes of the 
State Historical Society,
1857-1960
by Alan M. Schroder
The Old Stone Capitol, 1857
Not long after it was organized in February 
1857, the State Historical Society of Iowa 
moved into its first home, a basement room in 
the southwest corner of the Old Stone Capitol 
that it shared with the State University of Iowa 
library. As the university library grew, how­
ever, it required more space, so in the fall of 
1859 the society moved up to the former 
United States District Court Room on the first 
floor. The university’s continuing growth 
prompted a second move in 1862, this time to 
the Normal School building, commonly known 
as the Mechanics Academv.
The Mechanics Academy
The move into the Mechanics Academy, on 
Linn Street between Iowa Avenue and Jeffer­
son Street, provided the society with a consid­
erable increase in space for its collections. But a 
dispute soon arose between the society’s offi­
cers and the Rev. Samuel Storrs Howe—who 
had been the society's librarian and editor—j
over the use of part of the building. As a result, 
in 1864 the society petitioned the university for 
other quarters, and in March 1865 it was al­
lowed to move back into the Old Stone Capitol.
©Iowa State Historical Department/Division of the State His­
torical Society 1982 0031—0360/82/0506—083 $1.00
84 The Palimpsest
1
The Old Stone Capitol, 1865
The society’s stay in the remodeled Old Capitol 
was brief. The society’s collections were again 
sharing a room with the university library; part 
of the collections were in fact stored in the 
basement, where, the curators noted, they suf­
fered from “damp, mold and moth.” Continu­
ing space problems and a dispute with the uni­
versity over the ultimate control of the collec­
tions led the society to incorporate as a private 
nonprofit corporation and to seek a special 
appropriation from the Iowa General Assembly 
to provide the funding needed to secure its own 
quarters. When the appropriation passed in 
1868, the society rented the Old Stone Church 
to house its collections.
THE OLD STONE CHURCH
When the society moved into the Old Stone✓
Church, on the north side of Burlington be­
tween Clinton and Capitol, the curators de­
scribed their new exhibit area as a “pleasant 
room. A later biennial report noted that “the 
books are arranged in cases along the side
walls, so formed as to make a shallow alcove at*
each window, and thus room is found for all 
except the large stock of public documents held 
for exchange. The battle flags, portraits, and 
other objects of historical interest are displayed 
on the walls above the book-cases, and in other 
cases upon the floor.’ The curators were not as 
complimentary toward the building itself, 
however. “The ancient edifice we occupy, 
they declared in 1875, “is rickety and crum­
bling and no first class earthquake or Vesuvian 
eruption would be necessary' to entomb it.
Their search for better quarters led them to a ' 
newly constructed iron-fronted brick building 
in downtown Iowa Citv. !
The Palimpsest 85
The Washington Street Room
In 1882 the society moved into an eighty by 
thirty-five foot room on the second floor above 
Maresh and Holubar’s hardware store at 210V£ 
Washington Street (the store on the right in the 
above engraving). Later, a native Iowa Citian 
described the society ’s room as it was then: “In 
those days it was one of the few places which 
visiting relatives and friends just had to see. 
There was a whole museum of curios and of real 
relics like the Civil War flags, the tiny brass 
cannon which John Brown left as he passed 
through, etc., etc. The dear old curator, Mr. 
Lathrop, knew the complete history of every 
object and related it with gusto to visitors who 
had the time and interest to linger.’
SCHAEFFER HALL
While the Washington Street room was a 
pleasant enough home for the society’s collec­
tions, it clearly could not provide adequate 
room for a modern state historical society, and 
this was what Benjamin F. Shambaugh had in 
mind for the society when he became a 
member of its board of curators in 1897. Sham­
baugh, who was also a professor of political 
science at the university, sought to make the 
society into a major research and publishing 
institution, and to do so he led the society’s 
effort to obtain rooms in the university’s 
planned Hall of Liberal Arts, now Schaeffer 
Hall. When the building was completed in 
1901 the society was allotted the south wing of 
the third floor for its new home (on the top 
floor, left, in the above photograph). The His­
torical Department had been established in 
Des Moines by this time, and it assumed the 
functions of an historical museum, so the soci­
ety’s new home was essentially a research 
library. Schaeffer Hall was to remain the 
society’s home for the next six decades, until a 
fund drive by Superintendent William J. 
Petersen resulted in the construction of the 
society’s current home, the Centennial Build­
ing, which was completed in 1960. □


English

Former Homes of the State Historical Society 1857-1960

The Palimpsest, vol.63 no.3, May-June 1982

Pierson, Merrill R

Threshing in the Age of Steam

DeJohn, Wayne A

The Interurban Years

The Palimpsest, vol.62 no.6, November-December 1981

Opheim, Teresa

The Woman's World: Carrie Lane Chapman in the Mason City Republican

Sizer, Rosanne

P.G. Holden and the Corn Gospel Trains

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