Five men from the Hamilton County seat of Webster City moved 10 miles east to plat the town of Hawley in December 1857. The town was named after the Chief Engineer of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad with the hope he would choose to have the rail line stop in the new town. The railroad did not extend to the area for ten years, and by that time John I. Blair was the Chief Engineer. When the Hawley investors refused to work with Blair, he platted his own town a mile to the north and named it Blairsburg.
The Blairsburg Post Office was officially established in August 1867. It has been in operation since and now resides just north of the town’s Main Street, adjacent to the restored turn-of-the-century Blairsburg Opera House. It is one of over 250 post offices in the state being reviewed for closure.
On July 23, 1978, members of the Methodist and Christian Church congregations of the unincorporated Jasper County town of Ira held a meeting “for purposes of taking formal action to allow the merger of these legal non-profit Iowa corporations into one corporation known as the United Church of Ira.” The newly-formed combined congregation acted quickly to secure the pictured facility.
The building that houses the United Church of Ira dates to 1938, when it was constructed by the Works Progress Administration for use as a school and community hall. The two-room school, which housed kindergarten through eighth grade students, operated until 1955, when students were absorbed by the nearby Mingo Consolidated School District.
The building served as a community center then as a Grange hall before being purchased by the church in 1978. Volunteers created a sanctuary and church classrooms on the main floor, while leaving the basement room intact for use as a community hall.
Located on the north side of the square in the Floyd County community of Charles City, the Carnegie library building was constructed in 1904 at a cost of $10,000. It housed the Charles City Public Library until 1979, when a new facility was constructed. Fortunately, the historic building has new life as the Charles City Arts Center, which features exhibits, studio and classroom space, and is open to the public four days each week.
Each month works from a regional artist are displayed, with a reception held the first Friday of each exhibition. Community members looking for space to create their art can use the center’s free studio space, open to the public at no cost on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Check out the Charles City Arts Center website for more information, including hours, current exhibition details, and upcoming special events and classes.
The welcome sign outside the Sac County town of Nemaha features the slogan, It’s a “Mighty” Small Town. Few stories better demonstrate the community’s ability to come together than their effort to construct a community shelter and arboretum at the former site of the Nemaha school.
By the spring of 1990, the community received word the elementary school would close as part of the Crestland School District’s consolidation efforts. An auction was held at the 1922 school building in October 1990, and the demolition process began the following month. After sitting empty for nearly six years, organized meetings began to take place to discuss the construction of a shelter house and memorial tree arboretum on the former school lot.
Within just three months, the community received support from school alumni, residents, and former residents to raise the $25,000 needed for the project. The shelter house and memorial tree garden were completed entirely with volunteer labor. A flagpole was installed and dedicated at the shelter house site on Memorial Day 1998.
In 1871, residents in Clay County in northwestern Iowa voted to move the county seat from Peterson to Spencer. The first two courthouses were built at a combined cost of $6,500 and were criticized by citizens as being “plain and boring” in comparison to other equivalent facilities across the state. In 1900, construction was started on a new $60,000 Clay County Courthouse, and the doors were opened to the public on September 1901.
In 1979, the Clay County Board of Supervisors dedicated $2.1 million to renovate the courthouse and construct a separate administration building. The projects were completed in 1982. The Clay County Courthouse is one of eight buildings in the county on the National Register of Historic Places. It was added to the list in 1981.
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