Tour of Sherman Hill – Des Moines’ Oldest Neighborhood
This morning, me and couple of my friends took the 2008 Doors of the Past Walking Tour in Sherman Hill, Des Moines’ oldest neighborhood. From its beginnings in the 1870s until today, this neighborhood has maintained a prominent place in the city’s heritage and its architecture has earned distinction as Des Moines’ first local historical district in 1982.
Sherman Hill is a neighborhood that has seen a renaissance in the last ten years, but there is still more to do. The pictures I took along the way show some really nice homes and others that are in of desperate attention. According to the neighborhood’s website: There are numerous factors that draw people to Sherman Hill and have helped fuel the renaissance of the neighborhood. Sherman Hill is an “urban” neighborhood that offers a rare concentration of rich architecture and history that can be found few places in the Des Moines metropolitan area. The proximity of Sherman Hill to downtown, the Ingersoll and Cottage Grove Business Districts, and Iowa Methodist Medical Center all contribute to Sherman Hill’s desirability.
Sherman Hill became one of the City’s first recognized neighborhood associations in 1993. In recent years the Sherman Hill Association has succeeded in its efforts to enhance more aspects of quality of life in the neighborhood. That dedication has resulted in many improvements to the area. Among their more notable accomplishments are the addition of historic street lighting, the success of the annual Walking Tour, the preservation of homes slated for demolition in other parts of the city, and reduction in crime, increased property values and numerous rehabilitation projects spearheaded by the residents and the association.
Sherman Hill offers a unique mix of Victorian, Queen Anne, Italianate, Turn-of-the-Century Four Squares, Double Houses, Stick Style and Flemish architecture.
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MulderDSM on Sun, 28th Sep 2008 8:02 am
Here’s a link to a virtual walking tour from the homeowners association’s website:
http://www.shermanhill.org/shermanhill/virtualtour.html
Calmuse on Fri, 23rd Jan 2009 2:48 am
Perhaps “oldest mostly restored neighborhood” would be a better way of describing Sherman Hill. Capital Park, East Village, and Redhead Square on the East Side are as old. Some blocks in the Terrace Hill-Owl’s Head, Drake, River Bend, King-Irving, Columbus-McKinley Park, and Oak Park areas are contemporary with Sherman Hill.
An interesting note about Sherman Hill. Until the mid to late 1960s, immediately to the east of Sherman Hill (and including Sherman Hill’s northern edge) was the Center Street neighborhood, which extended east to the DSM river. For many years, that was one of DSM’s three small African-American enclaves, the other two having been parts of King-Irving and the East Side.