NPS Form 10-900-b . 0MB No. 1024-0018 (June 1991) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form This form is used for documenting multiple property groups relating to one or several historic contexts. See instructions in How to Complete the Multiple Property Documentation Form (National Register Bulletin 16B). Complete each item by entering the requested information. For additional space, use continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items. X New Submission __ Amended Submission A. Name of Multiple Property Listing________________________________________ Architectural & Historical Resources of Iowa Falls, Iowa B. Associated Historic Contexts (Name each associated historic context, identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period for each.) Settlement Era: 1851-1865 Railroad Era: 1866-1909 Ellsworth Era: 1890-1907 Automobile Era: 1902-1932 Depression Era: 1930-1941 C. Form Prepared by______________________________________________________ name/title _____Molly Myers Naumann, Consultant___________________(515) 682-2743 organization ___Iowa Falls Historic Preservation Commission_____ date March 1993____ street & number City Hall. 321 Stevens Street_____________ telephone(515) 648-2527 city or town Iowa Falls_______ state IA___________ zip code 5Q126______________ D. Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this documentation form meets the National Register documentation standards and sets forth requirements for the listing of related properties consistent with the National Register criteria. This submission meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60 and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation. (Q See continuation sheet for additional comments.) Signature and titTe of certifying official Date State Historical Society of Iowa State or Federal agency and bureau certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating related proerties for listing In/the National Register. lo!tl<13 Signature of the Keeper Date of Action NFS Form 10-900-a 0MB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number Page CFN-259-1116 Architectural & Historical Resources of Iowa Falls, Iowa Hardin County Historic Contexts: INTRODUCTION The Iowa Falls Historic Preservation Commission received a Certified Local Government grant in 1990 to conduct an architectural & historical sites survey of the community. This project was accomplished in two phases: 1) an "intensive" level survey was conducted of the properties located in the central business district and the small business district near the depot; and 2) a "reconnaissance" level survey was conducted of the rest of the community. The five historic contexts which were identified pertain to the town as a whole, not just the business district. All five of these contexts are addressed in this Multiple Property Documentation Form. Additional information about this survey project is included in Section H. Central Business District is circled. U.S.G.S. Map NFS Form 10-900-a QMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number __E__ Page_2___ ______________CFN-259-1116 Architectural & Historical Resources of Iowa Falls, Iowa Hardin County Historic Contexts (continued): SETTLEMENT ERA: 1851-1865 For the purpose of this document the period of significance for this context has been determined to begin in 1851 with the first settlement in the area, and end in 1865, the year before the railroad arrived. The first settlement in the vicinity of Iowa Falls was made in 1851 by Benjamin I. Talbott. * The following year two men from Pleasant Plain (Jefferson County), Iowa, Nathan Townsend and John Caldwell, settled near-by with their families. Talbott's claim included the land where the present town is located as well as the land east of Rock Run and southeast of the depot. He built a mill and planned to lay out a town on the site of Iowa Falls and call it Rocksylvania. A number of people said the name was too difficult to pronounce and spell. Dr. J.F. Simonds arrived in 1853, and suggested naming the town Iowa Falls because just above Elk Run the bed of the river was solid rock with a ripple, or fall, of two feet in about ten rods.2 Talbott was adamant. As Simonds told the story years later, "Don't thee see," he said to me, "how Pennsylvania was named... sylvania is woods, and so it was named Penn's woods, or Pennsylvania, and here are the rocks and woods which make Rocksylvania." I tried to compromise with him and call it Rockwood but did not succeed.3 Finally Talbott sold his mill site and settled on his land east of Rock Run with some other families of the Society of Friends. Here he laid out a town he called Rocksylvania in 1854. It consisted of twenty-five blocks around a public square (now known as Julia O"Neil Park, but once the site of the east side elementary school). Much later, the town of Rocksylvania became part of Iowa Falls, but the original blocks and streets remain as Talbott planned them. For many years Rocksylvania was almost exclusively inhabited by Friends, and the Friends Cemetery is located just to the northeast of the town. With Talbott's move, Dr. Simonds applied for a post office in the name of Iowa Falls, and the name has remained since that time. The town was actually laid out in October 1855 (plat recorded June 1856) by J.L. Estes, Hosmer Stevens, and J.R. Larkin.4 The original town was bounded by the Iowa River on the west and south, Union Street on the north, and by the section line (one half block east of Oak Street) on the east. In 1856 a three story stone mill was built near the south end of Main Street, and about the same time Alfred Woods built a stone hotel called the Western House on the southwest corner of Washington and Main. Although timber was readily available for building, limestone was also abundant. It is described as being NPS Form 10-900-a OM8 Approval No. 1Q24-OOW (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number E Page_3___ CFN-259-1116 Architectural & Historical Resources of Iowa Falls, Iowa Hardin County Historic Contexts (continued): easily quarried in unlimited quantities.....admits of a finish almost equal to marble....many substantial and neat stone buildings have been erected here from this material, and it is now being extensively shipped on the railroad to other points. It is well adapted for door and window caps and sills, as well as for ornamental stone work generally..... this limestone is of the best quality for the manufacture of quick-lime, large quantities of which are supplied at Iowa Falls, Alden and other points.^ Portions of the stone walls of the Western Hotel are said to still exist in the present (1993) Woods Hotel, but the other stone commercial buildings have been gone for decades. While there were once many limestone houses in Iowa Falls, the remaining ones can be counted on the fingers of one hand. One of the finest of those remaining is the J.S. Smith House at 704 College, built by a Swedish stone mason by the name of John Hanson in 1858. When Iowa Falls was platted most people felt it would grow up the hill from the river on the west (up Washington Street). However, the town actually grew on the hilltop or plateau, some sixty to seventy feet above the river which cuts its way through a deep gorge with perpendicular palisades rising on either side. As it developed, plans were made for a future railroad, and it was thought that the best place for the tracks would be along the south edge of town, at the crest of the palisade above the mill. Thus, the street nearest the river is named Railroad Street, not River, Front, or Water. Despite the Civil War, new settlers were arriving rapidly. In 1863 and '64 the Hardin Sentinel at Eldora noted the growth of Iowa Falls. Business was brisk, there were many new faces, several first class stores were being built, and others were planned. Many people were locating here because of the certainty that the railroad would arrive the next year (1866). Mills were driven to capacity, and a lumber yard was opened in 1865.6 That same year Lyman Wisner established the first bank in Iowa Falls. In December 1865 the editor of the Hardin Sentinel, Marcus Woodruff, decided to move the paper from Eldora to Iowa Falls. In the first paper printed in Iowa Falls he wrote Ten years ago the 7th day of August (1855) we alighted from a lumber wagon within 40 rods from where we are now penning these lines and turning our eyes in every direction saw but a single dwelling, a log cabin, and around about it a small farm lot from which had just been harvested NPS Form 10-900-a OMB AWroval No' '024-0078 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number F—— Page_4——— _______________________CFN-259-1116 Architectural & Historical Resources of Iowa Falls, Iowa Hardin County Historic Contexts (continued): a small patch of wheat and on which stood a few acres of corn. Some ten or a dozen faces, the entire population of the town, smiled a welcome to White's Mill, now Iowa Falls, which at that time had neither local habitation nor a name.