place

YMCA Building (Council Bluffs, Iowa)

Buildings and structures completed in 1909Buildings and structures in Council Bluffs, IowaClubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in IowaGeorgian Revival architecture in IowaIowa building and structure stubs
National Register of Historic Places in Pottawattamie County, IowaSouth Iowa Registered Historic Place stubsYMCA buildings in the United States
YMCA 628 C Bluffs IA
YMCA 628 C Bluffs IA

The YMCA Building is a historic building located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States. Construction of the building was partially funded by railroad magnet Grenville M. Dodge. The front section, designed by local architect Frederic E. Cox, was completed in 1909. The pool/gymnasium addition in the rear of the building was designed by J. Chris Jensen, another local architect, and completed in 1931. The front section is four stories tall and exhibits elements of the Colonial Revival and Federal styles. The fourth floor was renovated in 1931 and the shed dormers may have been added at that time. The rear addition is architecturally sympathetic to the original section of the building. The Union Pacific Railroad bought the building in 1929 so the facilities would be available for the men who worked on the railroad during the Great Depression. The local YMCA took over ownership again in 1955. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article YMCA Building (Council Bluffs, Iowa) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

YMCA Building (Council Bluffs, Iowa)
1st Avenue, Council Bluffs

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: YMCA Building (Council Bluffs, Iowa)Continue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 41.260416666667 ° E -95.853694444444 °
placeShow on map

Address

First Congregational Church

1st Avenue
51501 Council Bluffs
Iowa, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

YMCA 628 C Bluffs IA
YMCA 628 C Bluffs IA
Share experience

Nearby Places

Chieftain Hotel
Chieftain Hotel

The Chieftain Hotel is a historic former hotel building at 38 Pearl Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States. It opened in 1927, the result of a partnership between the Eppley Hotel Company and local patrons, and was built on the site of the Grand Hotel, which had opened in 1891 and was destroyed by a fire in 1925. The hotel was eight stories tall, and featured 153 guest rooms. Eppley owned and operated the hotel until 1956, when the chain was sold to Sheraton, which sold it off, along with several other Eppley hotels. After several management and ownership changes, it went into receivership to the First National Bank of Council Bluffs in 1966 and closed in 1970. It originally had two restaurants: The Terrace Cafe and the Java Room, and a cocktail lounge named The Ruby Room. All were located on the lobby level, and both the Java Room and Ruby Room were accessible from the street as well as from the hotel. The Terrace Cafe featured a Loggia which looked out on Bayliss Park across the street, and was decorated in the Adam style . During the Depression, The Terrace Cafe was converted to a banquet room. It remained a banquet room for the remainder of the time the hotel operated. The bobby was situated along the south side of the building and was a two-story space open to the mezzanine above. The second level consisted of four private dining rooms (Corn Room, State Suite, Pioneer Room, and The Beaux Arts Room) on the Pearl Street side of the building, and the Trianon Ballroom. In addition, a u-shaped mezzanine area adjacent to the Ballroom looked down onto the lobby below. The Corn Room and the Pioneer Room, were decorated with Murals painted by Iowa Artist Grant Wood. The Trianon Ballroom is named after a palace near Versailles, France, and could seat upwards of 500 guests. It was one of the original performance spaces for Council Bluffs' Chanticleer Community Theatre. After the hotel closed, the lobby and Terrace Cafe space were partitioned off and served as the Council Bluffs Elk's Club for many years, and the Java Room became a Godfather's Pizza. The former Ruby Room cocktail lounge has been used for many purposes, including congressional offices. The private dining rooms were converted to apartments, but the Ballroom remains intact. The facility is now known as Bluffs Towers, a low-income apartment house, primarily for senior citizens and people with disabilities. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

State Savings Bank (Council Bluffs, Iowa)
State Savings Bank (Council Bluffs, Iowa)

State Savings Bank, also known as the Old Savings Bank, is a historic building located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States. the bank was established in 1889, and was originally located across the street. Planning for this building began in 1941 with the organization of the State Investment Company, which would build and own the building. It was designed by W.G. Knoebel and built by St. Louis-based Bank Building and Equipment Corporation of America. It is a late example of Art Deco, and it's the only building in Council Bluffs that exhibits this style. Two-thirds of the building is a single-story banking facility, and the rest is divided into two-stories of office space. It has one of the first drive-through teller windows in Iowa. The rectangular building's exterior is finished in gray limestone on two elevations, and a wrap-around continuation on a third. Its primary decorative feature is an inscribed harvest motif on the east and west elevations that are mirror images of each other, oriented to the north. The motif features a male nude holding a wagon wheel and a scythe, with sheaves of wheat and a dog. The bank changed its name to State Bank & Trust in 1967, and continued to operated from here until 1978. The building sat empty for five years when it was renovated for use by State Investment Company and other offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The building now houses a branch office of Great Western Bank.

Bennett Building (Council Bluffs, Iowa)
Bennett Building (Council Bluffs, Iowa)

The Bennett Building, also known as the Ervin Building is an historic building located in downtown Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States. The previous building to occupy this property was a Woolworth's that was destroyed in a fire in 1922. The Bennett Building Corporation was formed in 1923 to build an office building that was designed to attract medical professionals. The seven-story, brick, Early Commercial structure was designed by local architectural firm Jensen and Larson, and the Omaha firm of McDonald and McDonald served as the supervising architects. E. A. Wickham and Company of Council Bluffs was the contractor. The building rises 86 feet (26 m) above the ground, and it has historically been the tallest building in downtown Council Bluffs. It follows a rectangular plan in the basement and first floor, and from the second to the seventh floor it follows an "L" shaped plan. The exterior features a tripartite division. The first floor is a limestone base that houses storefronts and the entrance lobby for the offices above. Floors two through six are composed of brick with large, regularly spaced windows. They contained professional offices, with many of them occupied by physicians and dentists. Many of Council Bluffs' women doctors had their practices here. The top floor is a modest brick and limestone crown that also housed offices. The Bennett Building has been converted into an apartment building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.