Old Downtown Des Moines Library

The United States Post Office is an historic building located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It became a contributing property of the Civic Center Historic District when it was established in 1988. It now houses administrative offices for Polk County.

The Des Moines Coliseum was a building located in Des Moines, Iowa. Opened in 1908, it served as the main venue for large public events in Des Moines for four decades. Herbert Hoover launched his 1932 re-election campaign from the Coliseum, and several other U.S. Presidents spoke there, including Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. Drake University played basketball in the Coliseum for a number of years, and it was used for wrestling, boxing, ice skating, and circus events. It was destroyed by fire on August 13, 1949. A YMCA was later built on the site, but that was torn down in 2015. In 2018 the site was acquired by the GSA to become the new courthouse for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

The Des Moines Civic Center is a 2,744-seat performing arts center belonging to Des Moines Performing Arts located in Des Moines, Iowa. It has been Iowa's largest theater since it opened on June 10, 1979, and is used for concerts, Broadway shows, ballets, and other special events. The Civic Center building is also home to the 200-seat Stoner Theater, used for smaller theatrical shows and lectures, located on street level. Cowles Commons, formerly Nollen Plaza, is the one square block space located west of the Civic Center. Cowles Commons opened in June 2015, and hosts several events throughout the year.Together with the Stoner Theater, Cowles Commons, and the nearby Temple for Performing Arts, the Civic Center is part of the Des Moines Performing Arts.

The Court Avenue Bridge is an historic structure located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It became a contributing property in the Civic Center Historic District in 1988, and was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 15, 1998 as a part of the Highway Bridges of Iowa MPS.

The Warfield, Pratt and Howell Company Warehouse is an historic building located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The building was built by wholesale grocer Warfield, Pratt and Howell Company. Wilson R. Warfield and John W. Howell moved their business to Des Moines in 1860 and moved to this location in 1884. William J. Pratt joined the partnership in 1897. The structure is a six-story commercial and office building that rises 93 feet (28 m) above the ground. The prominent Des Moines architectural firm of Proudfoot & Bird designed the building, and it is considered a good example of warehouse construction from the turn of the 20th century. It was completed in 1901 with an addition completed in 1909. It features load bearing brick piers, bearing walls, and wood column and girder technology on the interior. Other wholesale firms were housed in the building after 1935. It was part of a redeveloped district in the 1980s. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

The Boyt Company Building, also known as the Gilchrist Building, is a historic building located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The significance of this two-story brick structure is its association with the Boyt Company. Boyt manufactured leather goods in this building from 1904, when it was built, until 1908. They moved to a now nonextant building to the west at that time. From 1943 to 1945 Boyt was a contractor with the United States Armed Forces, and they leased this building as a depot for shipping supplies. They supplied leather and canvas goods to the Marine Corps, the Navy Department, Signal Corps, Rock Island Arsenal and Ordnance Department, the Army Air Force, and the Treasury Department, among others. The building was remodeled sometime in the 1910s or 1920s when the brick, including its simple cornice, was covered with stucco. It was remodeled again in 1980 when vertical wood siding was placed over the stucco. The building, along with the alley that connected it with Boyt's nonextant building, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

The Taft–West Warehouse, also known as the C.C. Taft Company Building, Plumb Supply Company, Ben's Furniture Warehouse, and Nacho Mamma's, is a historic building located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1923, this three-story brick structure was built during a transitional period between the dominance of railroads the emergence of trucks servicing warehouses. It was designed by local architectural firm of Vorse, Kraetsch, & Kraetsch. It features cleans lines of the Commercial style as opposed to the fussiness of late Victorian styling that was dominant in a great deal of the city's commercial architecture. The building was also located in the Court Avenue wholesale district, and now it is only one of only five or six that remain extant. The building was constructed for the C.C. Taft Company. This firm and the O.B. West Company that succeeded it in this building, dealt in wholesale fruits, vegetables, candy and tobacco. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

The Homestead Building, also known as the Martin Hotel, is a historic building located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Designed by the Des Moines architectural firm of Smith & Gage, it was built in two stages. The eastern one-third was completed in 1893 and the western two-thirds was completed in 1905. It is one of a few late nineteenth-century commercial/industrial buildings that remain in the downtown area. The building was built for James M. Pierce for his publishing operation, which included the Iowa Homestead, a pioneer publication of modern agricultural journalism. Prior to Pierce, the Iowa Homestead publisher was Henry Wallace, the father of Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace, and grandfather of U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace. "Through the efforts of Pierce and Wallace the Iowa Homestead became known for its promotion of the rotation of crops, the use of better seed, the value of more and better livestock, the importance of an attractive home and a good home life, the value of farmers banding together to protect common interests, and the care of the soil and conservation of its resources."The four-story brick commercial block has strong Richardsonian Romanesque qualities. The east and south elevations have hard, face brick in two shades of red given the two construction dates. The north and west elevations have common brick. Each series of arched windows on the third floor is accented with corbeled bands of brick and capped with a dentate cornice. There is also dentate cornice and parapet wall at the top of the east and south elevations, and a flat roof that caps the building. It was converted into a hotel in 1916, and two storefronts were added either in the 1940s or the 1950s. The original arched entrance on the east elevation was also removed. The storefronts have subsequently been removed, and the building now houses offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

The Des Moines City Hall is a government building in Des Moines, Iowa, built in 1909 and 1910. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 1977 as the Municipal Building, and became a contributing property in the Civic Center Historic District in 1988. The building serves as the seat for the government of the city of Des Moines. Beginning April 7, 2016, City Hall offices were temporarily relocated while the building underwent renovation. The construction was necessary to install modern heating, cooling, and sprinkler systems while preserving the historic character of the building. The project was expected to take 18–24 months. During that time, City Hall was closed to the public, and City offices moved to other nearby locations. Between February 26, 2018 and April 9, 2018, city offices moved back to City Hall.

The Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival is an annual festival in Des Moines, Iowa. Founded by members of the Iowa Bacon Board, the festival sold 200 tickets to the first festival in 2008. Today, the bacon celebration has grown to host approximately 14,000 bacon-lovers in all. Ticket holders can compete in a bacon-eating contest, listen to lectures about bacon, and sample bacon from vendors. Festival organizers have extended the celebration internationally through the Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour.

The Plaza Building, also known as The Plaza Condominiums, is a high-rise condominium building located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, United States. The building rises 25 floors and 340 feet (104 m) in height. It is currently the 5th-tallest building in the city, but will soon be the 6th after the completion of the skyscraper, The Fifth which will only be a couple blocks away. Designed by the architectural firm of Stageberg Beyer Sachs, Inc., the building was completed in 1985. It is essentially a modernist building, but it exhibits elements of the Postmodern style. These are found in the light and dark colored banding at the base and the blue hipped and gabled roof.

The Des Moines Saddlery Company Building is an historic building located in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It was built in 1881 by J. Rubelman of Muscatine, Iowa. He choose to move his operation to Des Moines because of its location on two rivers and the 13 railroads that served the city. It was one of four saddlery firms in a two block area. Rubelman's company made saddles, harnesses and leather works for 20 years. In the years since it has housed a shoe maker, rubber company, stove manufacturer, glove company, the Krispy Kone Company and the Kaplan Hat Company. The later was also the name of the restaurant that was located on the first floor. The building, which was built in four phases between c. 1878 to 1920, is the most intact example of commercial Italianate architecture extant in Des Moines. It was built to house both retail and manufacturing purposes. The building was flooded with 19 feet (6 m) of water during the Des Moines River flood of 1993. It remained empty until the Court Avenue Restaurant & Brewing Company moved in with its equipment. The Des Moines Saddlery Company Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.In 2016, the Republic of Kosovo selected the Saddlery Company Building to host a consulate office.