Touring Des Moines – Part 1

Des Moines hosted a gathering of neighborhood groups from Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, and other communities on September 6 and 7. The event was sponsored by Bank of the West, which participates in home purchases, home repairs, and business loans in the assorted cities. The summit started with a bus tour of part of Des Moines. Mary Neiderbach of the City of Des Moines’ planning department narrated the tour on the bus in which I rode. This is a report from that bus tour.

The population of Des Moines peaked in 1960 at 208,000. It bottomed out in 1970 at about 190,000 people. The city council has a goal of 10,000 residents downtown by 2010. The Marriott hotel at 7th and Grand was built in the 1970’s, which was described as “kind of our concrete phase.” The western edge of downtown is in its third development. The first was as part of a walking city. The second was around the 1920’s when businesses and the automobile started taking over. The third is happening now with open space and new residences.

Sherman Hills was developed between the 1880’s and the 1920’s. It includes the Hoyt Sherman house, which now houses an art collection and the Des Moines Women’s Club. (Hoyt was the brother of Gen. Tecumseh Sherman known for burning Atlanta during the Civil War.) New townhouses were built in the past year as in-fill housing with their exteriors designed to fit in with the historic nature of the neighborhood.

Ingersoll Avenue received commercial zoning status in 1966. It allows for buildings to be closer to the sidewalk and requires less parking for businesses. It does not have historic designation but it was described as having character. A consultant was quoted as saying the perception of the area is better than the reality. The corridor leads into downtown Des Moines, which gives it some additional importance.

The North of Grand (NOG) neighborhood is a mixture of bungalows and four-square houses. Garages tend to be added onto houses, which indicates an older neighborhood. Subdivisions created after the automobile started replacing public transit are more likely to have alleys. Bungalows were described as having one bedroom. Four squares look somewhat like squares with two stories.

Grand is one block south of Ingersoll. The south of Grand area has fancier houses and is one of the wealthier parts of the city. Tudor styles are more common in the Waterbury neighborhood, another upper-income community. The eastern few blocks of Waterbury are laid out in a grid pattern but the western part includes more curving streets and larger lots.

There are several loan and grant programs for neighborhood housing. Some are funded by the city, some are also funded by the county. A program that awards grants of $10,000 to fix up homes recently bought seeks to preserve housing and to improve the visual presence of neighborhoods. This grant program is for external repairs only and rates replacing a roof as higher than fixing a sidewalk.

Guest Writer: M.R. Field is editor of Leading Voices: Iowa.