116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Iowa City’s Centennial Building
65-year-old archive faces threat of closure
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
The State Historical Society celebrated a century of service to Iowa on Feb. 7, 1957.
When the state Legislature – the Iowa General Assembly – moved from Iowa City to Des Moines in 1857, the University of Iowa was established in Iowa City. At the same time, the State Historical Society was started as a private organization associated with the university.
The society’s first five years were in the Old Capitol. It then moved to the Mechanics Academy, the UI’s first building. In 1901, it moved to Schaeffer Hall.
The society’s first three presidents were all governors of the state: James W. Grimes, Ralph P. Lowe and Samuel J. Kirkwood.
More than 30 years later, in the 1890s, the State Department of History was established in the Capitol Building in Des Moines, followed later by a museum.
‘Rescue from oblivion’
During the 1955 legislative sessions, a capital improvements bill included a $200,000 appropriation for a centennial building in Iowa City for the State Historical Society, if the society could raise another $100,000.
“During the past century,” Superintendent William J. Petersen said in 1957, “the society has fulfilled its obligations to the people of Iowa in its continuous program. It has fulfilled the purpose – as set out by its creators – the order to rescue from oblivion the memory of the early pioneers.”
The State Historical Society of Iowa advertised for bids to build the Centennial Building. The new building was ready to move into in September 1959.
“More than 80,000 books, 30,000 pamphlets, 10,000 bound volumes of newspapers and 3,000 publications of the society will be moved in the next 90 days from Schaeffer Hall to the society’s new building at Iowa City,” The Gazette reported. “In all, 30 truckloads will be moved.”
Building dedicated
Dedication for the new building was set for October, but that didn’t happen until August 1960.
A tribute was printed in the centennial dinner program: “Iowans have always been a breed apart from other Midwesterners. The first settlers – God-fearing farmers from older parts of the country – gave Iowa a character it has never lost: a Puritan cast manifest in fervor for evangelical religion, temperance, moral reform, and above all, education.
“In 1847, a year after Iowa came into the Union, a state university was founded; 10 years later, the legislature chartered a state historical society and made an appropriation for its support.
“In order to ‘rescue from oblivion’ the memory of the early pioneers, the State Historical Society of Iowa was charged with establishing a library, promoting the study of history and publishing information relating to the description and history of Iowa.”
Threat of closure
The Iowa Legislature in 1974 authorized the merger of the department of history and archives, the historical preservation program and the former State Historical Society of Iowa into the Iowa State Historical Society. But there was a problem. The name already belonged to the original Iowa City society that had incorporated in 1867.
The legal problems were finally resolved Feb. 18, 1975, as six members of the state historical society in Iowa City joined six members of the state historical department in Des Moines as the state historical department.
After a new Historical Society Museum and Library in Des Moines was built at a cost of $25 million in 1987, the threat of closing seemed to perpetually hang over the Iowa City library. David Crosson, director of the State Historical Department, continued to deny the facility would be closed.
But Gov. Terry Branstad wanted minimal funding for the Iowa City library and planned to cut its staffing from eight to three.
Crosson countered that unless the General Assembly cut appropriations, which it had never done before, that wouldn’t happen.
According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the society deeded the building to the state after a lawsuit in 1977, “with the proviso that if the Iowa City facility closes, the old society takes over the building and its contents.”
In June 2025, the state announced the Centennial Building in Iowa City would close at the end of the month, with some of its materials moved to Des Moines. Ensuing lawsuits prevented that from happening immediately, though the building is now closed to the public.
The legal challenge continues, with a district court judge, citing state law, granting a temporary injunction in October to prevent the removal of any more materials from the Iowa City building to Des Moines.
Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com
Daily Newsletters