Touring Des Moines - Part 2

Neighborhood groups in Des Moines define their own borders and draw up their own by-laws. The city council then authorizes the group. Neighborhood groups now serve approximately 80% of the city. The groups are assisted by an umbrella organization called Des Moines Neighbors. Representatives from Des Moines Neighbors and from a few of the neighborhood groups participated in the Neighborhood Summit on September 6 and 7 held at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines.

Continuing the report from the bus tour started in Part 1, Beaverdale has been voted the most exciting neighborhood in Des Moines. The Tudor and Colonial Revival styles of its houses has led to the moniker of Beaverdale Bricks to describe the homes.

Drake University, founded in the 1880’s, is the central feature of the Drake neighborhood. Apartment houses were built in the 1960’s but there also are some flats from the 1920’s. The university is currently building new multi-family housing on land it owns by 31st Street, which will also include shops. There also was demand for university-related multi-family housing in the years after World War II.

The Rose is a low-income senior housing at Martin Luther King and Forest Avenue. The neighborhood had opposed a proposal for a gas station/convenience store on empty land and favored a proposal for the assisted living complex. Nearby, houses formerly owned by the local housing authority have been sold to non-profits at 75% of the units value. The houses will be rehabilitated for new owners. A bit farther away is the House of Mercy, a transitional home for young women.

Riverbend, which is near the bend that redirects the Des Moines River from its eastward route towards the south, was built between the 1890’s and approximately 1910. Victorian-style housing is common throughout the neighborhood but there are also some bungalows.

The area at Second Avenue and University was the first urban redevelopment project. This was several decades ago.

Capitol Park was originally a suburb of Des Moines but was incorporated into the city in the 1890’s. East High School, which is in this neighborhood, has the oldest and largest alumnae association in the United States.

As the tour wound down SE 14th Street, a visitor to the city asked who Merle Hay was. He was the first Iowan killed in World War I. Fleur was a captain killed in the same war.

City councilor Chris Hensley, who also is a community relations executive with Bank of the West, talked about Gray’s Lake during a lunch break. The structures by the playground on the north side of the lake are storage units that were kept as a reminder of the working history of the site. (Gray’s Lake is a former gravel pit.) The pedestrian bridge was a consequence of slow moving right-of-way talks with a railroad. Its design incorporates special glass to reflect colors at night. Gray’s Lake is the heaviest-used site in Des Moines with approximately 500,000 visitors a year.

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