Display shows 1913, 2017 views from Iowa Capitol

DES MOINES - The Iowa Statehouse is full of pictures of the gold-domed Capitol.

A new display turns the table - or the camera - to present the view outward from the Capitol.

The display - mounted in the Captiol's ground floor near the place tour groups assemble - features panoramic views of Des Moines in four directions.

'It took some detective work, but the best we can tell is that the photos were taken from the second floor,” said Joni Arnett, tour guide supervisor.

Arnett, a self-described 'historian by default,” and Craig Cronbaugh, director of the Legislative Information Office, believe the photos were taken around 1913 when the Capitol grounds were being expanded.

The photos show a much different view of Des Moines. Not only was the skyline much closer to the ground, but neighbors were much closer to the Statehouse.

At the time, the expansion was needed to provide room for monuments that were proposed to honor the long-serving U.S. Sen. William Allison, a Republican from northeast Iowa.

buying the grounds

Other than the 10 acres on which the Capitol stood, the area was privately owned and, according to information given to the Iowa Supreme Court, properties 'were a squalid collection of shacks and shanties.”

Today, the Capitol grounds cover 189 acres, much of it a parklike setting.

To show the changes, Cronbaugh took pictures from the second floor, trying to match the views as closely as possible.

Despite the changes, Arnett said it was relatively easy to match the photos to today's views from the Statehouse.

'Even though the structures have changed - or have been removed, the streets haven't,” she said. Exceptions are East 11th Street to the east of the Capitol and Capitol Avenue, which now dead-ends at East 14th Street.

The view west toward the East Village and downtown today looks remarkably similar to the view in the historical photos.

However, it has seen changes, too. For many years, much of the west terrace was covered by a parking lot. After a parking garage was completed in 2003, the parking lot was removed, and the area was restored to look much like it did a century earlier.

fighting the tax

The state spent $1.125 million buying the neighboring property. It was financed with a 10-year property tax designed to raise $2 million. According to a 1919 report by the Executive Council, the state spent $1.172 million for land purchases and leases and $461,179 for improvements to the grounds.

However, much like state appropriations for flowerpots and heated sidewalks around the Capitol today, Iowans didn't like the tax levy. A political ad asked: 'Why this unnecessary tax for such large grounds? And why does Iowa need an 80-acre farm in the heart of Des Moines for her Capitol grounds?”

Legal action was brought to block the tax, but ultimately, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality.

‘magnificent setting'

Once completed, the Capitol grounds expansion depicted in the historical display was described by the Iowa City Citizen newspaper as 'an undertaking of great magnitude.”

'The Capitol will have a magnificent setting, unexcelled by like grounds in any state, when the work is completed,” the paper wrote. 'While all of us did not agree as to the wisdom of providing this setting, at so large a cost, the matter is no longer debatable, and it now is proper for the state to rejoice that so long as the extension was to be made, no halfway measures were adopted. Iowa is able to afford the best, even in Capitol grounds.”

Cronbaugh and Arnett, who will start her 42nd year as a tour guide in January, have mounted several historical displays, including on the Capitol's gold dome, which is undergoing restoration. Others have focused on the USS Iowa battleship, the Capitol's encaustic tile and scagliola.

The exhibit will be on display for the next year. Arnett estimates an average of 80,000 people tour the Capitol each year.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com