The first Catholic Church in the Benton County town of Watkins was constructed in 1880 as a place of worship for the area’s Irish settlers. The church served the community for 26 years before it was destroyed by fire in 1906. The next year, a new facility was built; an adjacent residence was built in 1912 when a full-time pastor was appointed. As membership grew, the church size was doubled in 1918, while additional improvements were made in 1949 and 1962.
In 1935, a public meeting was held in the Bremer County town of Fredericksburg to formally organize a library organization. During the meeting, board members were elected, bylaws were drawn, and letters were sent to local organizations asking for help financing the library. The library was housed in the upper room of a local store until 1954, when it moved within the community hall building.
In 1975, resident Vern Upham purchased and donated a building to the city for use as a standalone library facility to be named in memory of his wife Dahlia. The library’s floor space was doubled after an expansion project was completed in 1995.
Located on Highway 63 in the Davis County seat of Bloomfield is one of approximately 75,000 Sears-Roebuck mail-order homes. It dates to 1910 and has been restored and repurposed for use as an official Iowa Welcome Center. The staffed center is open seven days a week and features a large selection of useful information for travelers, including maps and travel brochures from Iowa communities, counties, and regions throughout the state. An adjacent picnic area is available for travelers, and the center contains a gift shop which sells handmade Amish crafts.
By 1921, poor quality of the brick walls and a lack of drain tiles caused dangerous cracks in the forty-year-old Ringgold County Courthouse. That year, it was condemned as unsafe for use by the state architect and county offices were forced to move to a garage building located on the northwest side of the square. The condemned courthouse was demolished and voters were asked to approve construction of a new courthouse in the seat of Mount Ayr.
Five votes were required before a bond issue of $150,000 was approved by voters, with a vote of 2,295 to 1,703. Construction started in September 1926, and the first county offices moved into the new facility in October 1927. Constructed of brick and reinforced concrete, the three-story Ringgold County Courthouse was formally dedicated November 12, 1927. Speakers included Iowa Governor John Hammill, with several Iowa Supreme Court Justices and other state officers present.
Minor changes have been made since the building’s construction, the most notable being the installation of aluminum windows and doors in 1975.
In late February 2011, Iowa Backroads published two weekend updates related to the closure and potential closure of up to 18 post offices across the state of Iowa. Since then, post office closings have been in the news on a local and national level, and the number potentially slated for closure in Iowa exceeds 270. View the latest Iowa post office closings list.
While a U.S. Postal Service memo suggests closings may be slowing for the holiday season, plans to close Iowa offices are still moving forward. A recap of related local news follows: