The list for Des Moines’ most endangered buildings is in and three of the seven are located in downtown Des Moines. The Des Moines Rehabbers Club sought public nominations this past summer and selected seven buildings that represent a variety of styles and ages. Rehabbers Club organizer Steve Wilke-Shapiro, who coordinated the nominations, said the seven buildings “have individually compelling tales.”

Below are three that are located in downtown, two are in the Sherman Hill neighborhood and one is in the East Village.

• The 1893 Sherman Hill mansion at 692 17th St. burned in 1988 and has been under reconstruction since.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Community | East Village | History | Sherman Hill

Continuing our series on Des Moines Downtown Neighborhoods, today we will take a look at the Sherman Hills Neighborhood. Des Moines is currently made up of to six diverse and distinctive urban neighborhoods. Each of the neighborhood’s rough boundaries appear on this map below.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Neighborhoods | Sherman Hill

During my daily digg, I came across some outstanding architecture for a new church building in Oakland, California. The building is known as the Cathedral of Christ the Light and was just recently completed. The stunning structure makes beautiful use of glass, fly ash concrete, and wood, but what is the most impressing thing is the incredible use of natural light. This building reminds me just a little of the new Davis Brown Tower. I love awesome architecture, and while we don’t have a church or building that is of this magnitude we do have a very interesting architectural designed church that has recently been restored and that I saw as part of the Sherman Hill’s Doors of the Past Walking Tour last weekend.

The restoration of the First United Methodist Church building was part of the church celebrating its 100th year as home to Des Moines’ oldest congregation. The church, located at 1001 Pleasant Street, was built in Classic Revival style and first dedicated in 1908. The church is known for its dome with the revolving cross overlooks downtown from a hilltop perch just east of Iowa Methodist Medical Center.

The church has a 40-foot wheel of stained glass, known as the Kingman Memorial Window. The interior of the church was repainted with 19 different colors as part of the restoration efforts. Also restored were the eight columns, which represent the congregation’s eight founding families.

Here are some pictures of the church from both the outside and inside as well as a video about the restoration.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Architecture | Building Spotlight | Sherman Hill | Video

Yesterday as part of the Doors of the Past – Sherman Hill Walking Tour, I was able to tour the historic Murillo building. The building is currently located at the corner of 16th Street & High Street in the Sherman Hill’s neighborhood. The building had been originally located at 531 14th Street, just three blocks from it’s current location.

The Murillo building was built in 1905 and is a three story, brick and masonry apartment building with six rental units, two per floor. The building was moved to the new site to help make room for Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shields new headquarters. The building’s move took place on March 1st and 2nd of this year and was even filmed for the History Channel and should debut later this year as part of their National Geographic Monster Moves series. I’ve included a couple of short YouTube videos from local videographers below. The move cost over $1 million and took 17 days to prepare for and took about eight hours to go the three and half blocks to its destination. 

The Murillo buildings is currently on the list for nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. According to it’s nomination details, the building is considered an outstanding example of the “flat building”, a new architectural form that was emerging in Des Moines at the turn of the century. The Murillo Flats was orginally dubbed the “McNamara Flats,” but its owners James McNamara changed the building’s name to Murillo Flats to recognize a favorite Spanish painters, Bartolome Esteban Murillo (c. 1617-1682) who was being featured in a Des Moines art exhibition at the time. The word “flats,” which was used in Britain at the time (and today) to describe an apartment building, enjoyed certain popularity in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century, so the building was called the Murillo Flats.

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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Architecture | History | Property Spotlight | Sherman Hill

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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Posted under Living Downtown
Tags: Architecture | History | Neighborhoods | Sherman Hill | Tours