Iowa City, Iowa
Iowa City is the largest city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 74,828 at the 2020 census, making it the state's fifth-most populous city. The Iowa City metropolitan area, which encompasses Johnson and Washington counties, has a population of over 171,000. The metro area is also a part of a combined statistical area with the Cedar Rapids metro area known as the Iowa City–Cedar Rapids region; collectively, this region has a population of nearly 500,000.
Home of the University of Iowa, the city served as Iowa Territory's third and final capital and the first capital of the State of Iowa. The Old Capitol building, where the state legislature met, is now a National Historic Landmark and museum on the University of Iowa campus. The University of Iowa Art Museum and Plum Grove Historic House, the home of the first governor of Iowa, are also tourist attractions.
History
Iowa City was created by an act of the Legislative Assembly of the Iowa Territory on January 21, 1839, fulfilling the desire of Governor Robert Lucas to move the capital out of Burlington and closer to the center of the territory. This act began:An Act to locate the Seat of Government of the Territory of Iowa... so soon as the place shall be selected, and the consent of the United States obtained, the commissioners shall proceed to lay out a town to be called "Iowa City".
Commissioners Chauncey Swan and John Ronalds met on May 1 in the small settlement of Napoleon, south of present-day Iowa City, to select a site for the new capital city. The following day, the commissioners selected a site on bluffs above the Iowa River north of Napoleon, placed a stake in the center of the proposed site and began planning the new capital city. Commissioner Swan, in a report to the legislature in Burlington, described the site:
Iowa City is located on a section of land lying in the form of an amphitheater. There is an eminence on the west near the river, running parallel with it."
By June of that year, the town had been platted and surveyed from Brown St. in the north to Burlington St. in the south, and from the Iowa River eastward to Governor St.
Iowa City was selected and surveyed as the territorial capital site in 1839. Construction of the Old Capitol Building commenced that year, but the city did not officially serve as the territorial capital until 1841, when the building neared completion. The territorial legislature convened in the Old Capitol Building from 1842 until territorial government ceased on December 28, 1846, when Iowa achieved statehood. In 1857 the state capital was moved to Des Moines.
Iowa Old Capitol Building
is credited with designing the Territorial Capitol Building. He had previously designed the 1837 capitol of Illinois and was supervising its construction when he got the commission to design the new Iowa capitol in 1839. He quit the Iowa project after five months, claiming his design was not followed, but the resemblance to the Illinois capitol suggests he strongly influenced the final Iowa design. One surviving 1839 sketch of the proposed capital shows a radically different layout, with two domes and a central tower. The cornerstone of the Old Capitol Building was laid in Iowa City on July 4, 1840. Iowa City served as the third and last territorial capital of Iowa, and the last four territorial legislatures met at the Old Capitol Building until December 28, 1846, when Iowa was admitted into the United States as the 29th state of the union. Iowa City was declared the state capital of Iowa, and the government convened in the Old Capitol Building.1843 cemetery
was deeded to "the people of Iowa City" by the Iowa territorial legislature on February 13, 1843. The original plot was one block square, with the southwest corner at Governor and Church. Over the years, the cemetery has been expanded and now encompasses. Oakland Cemetery is a non-perpetual care city cemetery. This cemetery is supported by city taxes. The staff is strongly committed to the maintenance and preservation of privately owned lots and accessories.The cemetery is the final resting place of many men and women important in the history of Iowa, of Iowa City and the University of Iowa. These include Robert E. Lucas, first governor of the territory ; Samuel J. Kirkwood, governor during the Civil War, again in 1876, a U.S. senator in 1877, and subsequently secretary of the interior and U.S. minister to Spain; well-known presidents of the university, Walter A. Jessup and Virgil M. Hancher ; Cordelia Swan, daughter of one of the three commissioners who selected the site for Iowa City and the new territorial capitol; and Irving B. Weber, noted Iowa City historian.
The cemetery contains the 'Black Angel,' an bronze monument erected in 1912 for the Feldevert family. The 8.5-foot bronze monument erected in 1912 for the Feldevert family darkened significantly over time due to copper oxidation, a transformation that has generated local urban legends.
1847 university founding
Founded in 1847, the University of Iowa enrolls approximately 31,000 students across more than 200 degree programs, ranging from undergraduate to doctoral studies. The university includes a medical school and one of the United States' largest university-owned teaching hospitals, providing patient care within 16 medical specialties. The University of Iowa College of Law is located there.1970 riots
Following the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, anti-war protests escalated nationally and in Iowa City. On April 30, President Richard Nixon announced that U.S. forces would invade Cambodia because of the recent communist coup. Students around the country protested this escalation of the Vietnam War. On May 4, the National Guard fired on students at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine people, which ignited protests all over the country.Anti-war protests were not new to Iowa City or to elsewhere in Iowa; protests had been occurring throughout the 1960s. Spring of 1970 was different.
After the Kent State shootings, students marched on the National Guard Armory, broke windows there as well as in some downtown businesses. The City Council gave the mayor curfew powers. On May 6, students boycotted classes. That evening, approximately 400 demonstrators held a sit-in on the Pentacrest. Later that night, about 50 individuals entered the Old Capitol, discharged a smoke bomb, and voluntarily exited upon request. In the early morning of May 9, President Boyd ordered highway patrolmen to arrest students gathered on the Pentacrest, but the next day he regretted the mass arrests and said he had received faulty information. On May 8, President Boyd cancelled the 89th annual Governor's Day ROTC observance for the following day. On Friday and Saturday, a National Guard helicopter circled the Pentacrest.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, May 9, the Old Armory Temporary, also known as "Big Pink", which housed the writing lab, was burned down. This building was located next to the Old Armory, where the Adler Journalism and Mass Communications building is currently located. Contemporary accounts indicate that O.A.T. was a priority target for protest actions due to its deteriorated structural condition and documented fire hazard status.
The June–July 1970 issue of the Iowa Alumni Review documented the fire, reporting that structural damage was extensive, with only the building's end walls remaining intact.
By Sunday morning, President Boyd gave students the option to leave. Classes were not cancelled, but students could leave and take the grade they currently had. An account of the May 1970 protests can be read in the June–July issue of the Iowa Alumni Review.
In his autobiography, My Iowa Journey: The Life Story of the University of Iowa's First African American Professor, Philip Hubbard gives an administrator's perspective of all the protests of the 1960s. He supported the students' right to protest and in 1966 stated:
"Students should not accept everything that is dished out to them. We don't want to dictate what they should or should not do. However, student demonstrations should remain within the law and good taste without interfering with the university's primary purpose of instructing students."
During this time, there was also a strong ROTC presence on campus. Their presence on campus and the academic credit they received for their service was called into question by both students and faculty in the spring of 1970, but Boyd said he could not abolish ROTC. The Alumni Review had an article called "ROTC: Alive and well at Iowa" in the December 1969 issue which helps provide a more complete picture of this period in history.
2006 tornadoes
On the evening of April 13, 2006, a confirmed EF2 tornado struck Iowa City, causing severe property damage and displacing many from their homes, including many University of Iowa students. It was the first tornado ever recorded to hit the city directly. The tornado caused extensive property damage, with no fatalities reported. The impacts extended across the city's downtown business district, residential areas on the east side, and the university campus, affecting approximately 50+ propertiesSeveral businesses along Riverside Drive and Iowa Highway 1 were destroyed. The 134-year-old Saint Patrick's Catholic Church was heavily damaged only minutes after Holy Thursday Mass, with most of its roof destroyed. Declared a total loss, the building was subsequently demolished. The downtown business district as well as the eastern residential area and several parks suffered scattered damage of varying degrees.
Additionally, several houses in the sorority row area were destroyed. The Alpha Chi Omega house was nearly destroyed, though no one was injured. The building was later razed. Cleanup efforts were underway almost immediately as local law enforcement, volunteer workers from all over the state, and Iowa City residents and college students worked together to restore the city. The total cost of damage was estimated at $12 million–$4 million of which was attributed to Iowa City and Johnson County property.