Historic Buildings of Iowa: Council Bluffs

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Nestled along the banks of the Missouri River, Council Bluffs is home to world renowned innovation and architecture.

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The prominence of the railroad with structures designed for famous explorers and landmarks representing this gateway to the American West.

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A building reborn, enriching, inspiring and entertaining through arts and culture.

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A museum originally built as a beautiful Beaux Arts style library now housing a robust collection of railway history.

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The home of the celebrated Civil War General, politician and leader whose engineering vision connected the country with the first Transcontinental railroad.

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From the bluffs of Loess soil, a neighborhood with expansive views and landscapes full of history overlooking the Missouri River Valley.

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Join Iowa PBS as we explore the innovation and the architecture within the Historic Buildings of Iowa: Council Bluffs.

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Funding for this program is provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation, generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS.

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Perched high above Council Bluffs overlooking the Missouri River Valley, sits the Historic General Dodge House --

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-- the former home of General Grenville Dodge and his family.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] General Dodge was a Civil War General. He also organized a military spy system. He was the youngest general up until World War II in the U.S. Army as well as the civil engineer for the Transcontinental Railroad.

[Narrator] In 1859, Dodge, then a railroad engineer, met with former Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, who was passing through Council Bluffs to survey land ahead of western railroad expansion. The following year, Lincoln would be elected President and soon after, the nation plummeted into Civil War. In 1863, President Lincoln would call on Dodge, now a General in the Union Army, to advise on a starting point for the Union Pacific Railroad.

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[Narrator] The two men settled on Council Bluffs where they had met years earlier.

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[Narrator] After the war, General Dodge became the chief engineer for the Transcontinental Railroad. He and his family rooted themselves in Council Bluffs and in 1869 built this magnificent brick Victorian home.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] General Dodge was married to Ruth Anne Browne. They had three daughters. The oldest daughter Lettie, the middle daughter Ella and the youngest was Anne Dodge. Anne was the last Dodge to live in this home. When General Dodge built his home here, one of the reasons he built it up on the bluff is it overlooked the city, or actually the frontier at that time, but he could also see the railroad yard. And so, with his passion being the railroad, he enjoyed being able to oversee the yard.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] The architect was William Boyington. He also was the architect for Terrace Hill in Des Moines.

[Narrator] Terrace Hill and the Dodge House share many similarities including the shutters.

[Michelle Hrdlicka] All of the shutters fold into the wall and you would never know that they were a shutter. They look like woodwork.

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[Narrator] Boyington topped both structures with a mansard roof, a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides, often punctured by a dormer window.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] The porch of the home is not the original porch. The original porch was replaced with the grand porch that you see now and that was done by the daughters. They wanted something a little more grand and elegant for entertaining. The grand porch itself is beautiful. We do a lot of events at the Dodge House and the porch is utilized for a lot of events.

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[Narrator] Located just behind the Dodge House sits the Carriage House.

[Michelle Hrdlicka] The Carriage House was built in 1880 and it is where the chauffeurs would live in the upper portion of the carriage house. And the sleighs and buggies would be in the lower portion.

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[Narrator] Original items owned by the Dodge family still remain inside the two-foot-thick brick walls of the historic Dodge House.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] The main floor of the Dodge House was pretty much the living area for the Dodges. You have General Dodge's private library. Off of the library you enter into the dining room. And then behind me you have the formal parlor as well as the private parlor. General Dodge's private library is the most authentic room in the home. It has the most original Dodge items. So, one item that you do see in the library and the book case is an 1866 Winchester. It was a gift to General Dodge from the Union Pacific Railroad and that is one of our I would say most prized possessions in the Dodge House. Other items that are in the library are the General's original swords. So, above his portrait hangs his ceremonial sword and above the entrance to the library is his battle sword. We also have in the library the Dodge's Bible that is open to the marriages of the Dodge family in there. When you enter the dining room, you'll see the table is set for a 16-course meal. On the table is the Dodge's original gold Limoges China as well as golden goblets that sit on the table and they are known by three different names, the golden goblets, the Pusey goblets, also the Lincoln goblets. And the reason that they are called the Lincoln goblets is when Abraham Lincoln came to Council Bluffs, he drank out of one of those goblets. In the front parlor, you will see a pier mirror and in the back parlor there is another pier mirror. We also call those infinity mirrors or eternity mirrors. And no matter which parlor you're looking into, if you look into the mirror, you will see that the lights go on for an eternity. That's why we call them eternity mirrors as well. Those are original to the home. In the back parlor, you will see the portraits of General Dodge and Mrs. Dodge. We believe they were around 40 years old when those portraits were done and those are actually, as far as we know, the first portraits of the Dodge's.

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[Narrator] At the top of the stairs on the second floor, you will find living quarters including the General's Den, multiple bedrooms and the Gold Room.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] The two older daughters, Ella and Lettie, they shared a room. We call that the Gold Room. One of the unique things that you find in there, the chandelier in that room is called Vaseline glass and it has Uranium in it. So, if a UV light is shined on that it actually glows green. And that is one of our favorite things to show some of our visitors that are really interested in the fine details of the home is the uranium glass that you find here. At some point, Mrs. Dodge did take one of the guest bedrooms and turned it into her own bedroom. And then when you climb up the next flight of steps you will be in the ballroom where the Dodge's did a lot of entertaining. They held many parties up there. That is also where the servants and the head housekeeper slept, their bedrooms would have been up there, as well as the male servant's bedroom would have been up there. A third floor of a home, most homes, would be an attic and the roofs on a standard home come to a peak. So, the side walls on a third floor are much lower whereas on the mansard, the third floor is opened up and the roof goes on the outside of the walls instead of going into a peak.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] One of my favorite areas of the Dodge House would actually be the servant's stairway. When you look at the staircase you can see all of the marks on the faces of the steps and those are the servant's toe kicks. To go up the steps, the servants would be in long dresses and carrying things so they couldn't see where their feet were. So, to find their way up the steps they would kick the face of each step. To me, that represents the hard work of the servants to keep the Dodge family running.

[Narrator] The Dodge House's basement has been repurposed to pay homage to the man whose life's work put Council Bluffs on the map and cemented this western Iowa town's position as the Gateway to the West.

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[Michelle Hrdlicka] The dry and cold storage room now is one room and serves as our display room. It showcases items from the Civil War, presidential ties, Transcontinental Railroad and also the funeral of General Dodge. We have pictures on the back wall that shows that it was the largest funeral ever in Council Bluffs, over 2,000 people attended. And it shows the funeral procession as well as the burial. Council Bluffs, as well as Omaha, probably wouldn't be what it is today without General Dodge seeing the railroad through. It developed Council Bluffs as a city, establishing, in my opinion, the city of Council Bluffs, is what he did.

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Located in the heart of downtown Council Bluffs, the Union Pacific Railroad Museum is a beautiful and unique Beaux Arts style building that originally housed the Council Bluffs Carnegie Public Library.

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[Edwin Schroeder] It was constructed in 1904 and 1905 and it was the center, or one of the centers, for the city of Council Bluffs and its cultural activities. It fit into this desire by Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate and philanthropist, to provide libraries across the entire country. So, he funded several thousand libraries over the course of 25 years. In Iowa itself, 101 public libraries were funded by Carnegie. This was one of the largest. The library had to be open to everyone. Everyone had to be accepted. So, many of the same ideas about a public library today were there in that early version. The Beaux Arts was seen as very civic-oriented. It was a very prominent style. It fit with the classical, people are interested in the classic, so Roman, Greek architecture, and you can see that in the design outside.

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[Patricia LaBounty] The impressive nature of the Beaux Arts style building is not super unlike train stations from the turn of the century. We frequently have to explain no, it was actually a library, not a train station. But they had a similar weighty important feel. Semi-institutional, you know this isn't a house. It definitely has that facade that lends itself to government or institution to it. But then I think that the Beaux Arts style is a little bit whimsical, which helps for my mission to making the museum a fun and accessible place for families. So, we don't want it to be too intimidating.

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[Narrator] The library was designed by the Chicago architecture firm Patton & Miller, which helped in the construction of more than 100 libraries around the United States.

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[Edwin Schroeder] As you come in the main door, what was the main door, they had ionic columns and then they also had the sense of arches. There were three arches as you came in. And so that ties back, once again, if you think about classical architecture there was very much a heavy use of arches there. The use of brick is a little unusual, more Roman than Greek I think, and it's a very decorative brick, it's a very thin layer of brick. When the library first opened the main entrance, and remains today, was on Pearl Street. But in 1905 when the library opened there was also another entrance that opened onto the park on Wilhelm. And that in some ways tied the library into the park and made it part of the community. In the 1950s when they did a renovation to modernize the library, they closed that north entrance and it's still there. You can see where the staircase was, but it's not used today.

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[Patricia LaBounty] Behind me is what we consider the atrium for the building. So, this would have been the original entrance, vaulted space into the building.

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[Patricia LaBounty] Once you enter into the first floor for the space, this grand atrium opens up with vaulted ceilings and curved arches that are surprising in a space this size I think and feel very impressive. They feel very weighty.

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[Edwin Schroeder] It's a very grand entrance. So, you would walk up the steps and as you came into the building where the railroad car is today, it was very dramatic. Once again, classical style. And so, it made a statement.

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[Narrator] On each side of the atrium sat two rooms, one for reading and one for children. Today, one is dedicated to the life of Abraham Lincoln.

[Edwin Schroeder] The one on the right that we're currently in was originally the children's room for the library. And what's interesting is that we've been able to keep the fireplace and also behind it you could see the secret cabinets as well where they could store things. Gradually as the library grew in size and busier, they moved the children's room upstairs for more space, and this just became another reading area.

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[Edwin Schroeder] One of the things that you can see in the reading rooms were you would have a fireplace, it was a very comfortable space as a reader, for someone to come in. You had large windows. You also used stained glass to give it a sort of upscale look. You had to rely upon natural light. And so, the windows on this level were much larger than upstairs where the stacks or where the books were stored where you didn't need as much natural light.

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[Patricia LaBounty] This building during the renovations had gorgeous woodwork and arched doorways and fan lights and stained glass and much of that is preserved in the building. Some features were maybe moved, but all of the original woodwork, if anything new was added it matched the old. It was just a beautiful job of historic preservation.

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[Narrator] In 1921, Union Pacific opened its first museum within its Omaha headquarters, launching an effort to memorialize and preserve the story of the rail lines that transformed the American West. Over time, the company outgrew its main office building and the future of the museum space and the collection it housed was up in the air.

[Patricia LaBounty] The Union Pacific is the head of a family of about 40 subsidiary railroads and six major ones. Their headquarters building was too small, so they constructed another one in the late '90s. There was no space for a museum in that building. So, the collection was essentially homeless. It was a little bit orphaned. And at the same time, this community was trying to save this beautiful library because the library had outgrown its space and this community needed a much larger community library. So, those two projects collided and in a really unusual partnership, Union Pacific's collection, a non-profit to interpret that collection and share it with the public, and the city of Council Bluffs came together and this museum was opened on May 10, 2003.

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[Patricia LaBounty] For the floor that is behind me, which this would be considered our big story, the Transcontinental Railroad, the building America story. When we started the design process on this floor, we wanted to transport visitors to another place. We wanted to provide enough of a 3D environment where we could kind of pull people out of where they thought they were and put them somewhere else. But at the same time, we wanted very much to live within the gorgeous space that we were in. So, the historical and architectural details of the building were really important to us. The first floor most visitors experience it in a counterclockwise circle where you begin and end in the atrium. And as you proceed along that route, the space becomes more and more exhibit and less and less building and then as you come out it is less and less exhibit and more and more building. And so, that was a way for us to sort of balance those two goals, to respect the architecture on the front of the building, the beautiful columns, the original windows, and so you have that sense of space and place, but as you go into the west side of the building you're transported with mountains and tunnels and big murals.

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[Patricia LaBounty] We have a lot of digital bells and whistles that bring our collection out to you. So, we have the largest collection of photographs documenting the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the world. We have a sliding map where you can literally move the screen along a map of the Transcontinental Railroad and pop out all of these different locations and then look at all these photographs because a lot of people are like oh this is history, this happened, now it's no longer a big deal. It is still a big deal, you're just not intersecting with it personally.

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[Patricia LaBounty] We are a true railroad museum. So, we are talking about the intersection of this industry that transformed the United States and impacted people daily.

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[Narrator] The renovated antiquity of the Carnegie Library and the Union Pacific Museum come together in the heart of Council Bluffs bringing to life the history of the city, its people and the Transcontinental Railroad that connected a nation.

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Perched high on the bluffs on the Loess Hills sets the Lincoln Fairview Historic District, one of Council Bluffs earliest neighborhoods. This charming area showcases the city's rich history and architectural heritage.

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[Susan Seamands] The railroads really were what spurred the growth of the city on this side of the Missouri and also there was no bridge over the river so this really was kind of the last point before you moved west of civilization, if you will. Since there was no bridge over the river and pioneers were moving west, Council Bluffs became one of the last places you could get outfitted, you could get provisions and so forth, whatever you needed to make that treacherous journey west.

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[Susan Seamands] Fairly wealthy people were building homes here. Business people, business owners would build their homes here because it was close to the center of the city and the business district and the houses filled in one by one. I think you can see that it's quite beautiful in the fact that there might be several of a given style but each home is unique.

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[Susan Seamands] One of the first homes at the top of the hill is Italianate, beautiful regal structure in the Italian fashion of the renaissance homes. Many Victorian or Queen Anne, which are the lovely multi-colored, lots of architectural detail with peaked roofs, lots of maybe different shaped windows, different facings on the house. They might have fish scales. They catch your eye because they are unique. We don't really build anything like that these days. We've been in this home just over 29 years, very fortunate to have found it. It's my dream home. It has been a pleasure to live here and feel the history around us and be able to make our own memories in this home, and at the same time be stewards of the property so that one day another family can live here and make their own memories.

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[Susan Seamands] This district is very fortunate in having the beautiful homes that we have that people have chosen to preserve, but also, we sit with the Dodge Memorial Angel. We have Fairview Cemetery at the top of the hill full of history. And then we also have the Lincoln Monument in our district.

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[Narrator] Erected in July 1911, the Lincoln Monument is an impressive pilon that commemorates Abraham Lincoln's 1859 visit to the area.

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[Narrator] From this site, Lincoln and young railroad engineer Grenville Dodge, surveyed what would become the eastern terminus of the first Transcontinental railroad built in the United States.

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[Thomas Emmett] Dodge told Lincoln everything about the Platte Valley route out into the west. And later that day, Lincoln said, many railroads will someday center here. By 1913, Council Bluffs was the fifth largest railroad center in the country. Council Bluffs really created the west. It is a frontier city that made the frontier more and more expansive.

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[Narrator] Just east of the Lincoln Monument sits the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial. Also known as the Black Angel, this monument commemorates the contributions General Dodge's wife, Ruth Anne, made for education and for promoting the development of the city and the state that she loved.

[Thomas Emmett] The Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial is something that we are so proud of. Ruth Anne Dodge was married to General Grenville Dodge. And in 1916, his beloved wife was dying and she had a vision and the vision was a woman on the bow of a boat offering her the water of life. And she felt like she was unworthy and so she refused it. And every night, the dream would reoccur and the woman would come and offer her this water of life and she finally took it and then she woke up at peace.

[Narrator] Shortly after that dream, Ruth Anne passed away and this cast bronze sculpture was erected in her memory. Standing almost nine feet tall, the statue holds a water basin and is wreathed in laurel. Its pedestal is a representation of a ship's prow with a garland swag carved in pink marble. Commissioned by Dodge's daughters Anne and Ella, the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial was created by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon, the same team behind the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

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[Narrator] North of the Black Angel lies the Fairview Cemetery, home to the Kinsman Monument. Built in 1902, this monument was erected to honor Colonel William Kinsman, commanding officer of the 23rd Iowa volunteer infantry regiment and veterans of the Civil War.

[Thomas Emmett] When the Civil War came along, he was eager to fight for the freedom of African-Americans and to preserve the union. And at a battle to take Vicksburg, he led his troops and was mortally wounded. But the battle was won. And so, he was buried and after two searches funded by General Grenville Dodge, they found his body and brought him back and built this amazing, beautiful monument for him. There are a number of other soldiers buried alongside Kinsman that died with him or Council Bluffs soldiers that died during the Civil War. We've not forgotten Mr. Kinsman or any of his fellow warriors to this day. We honor our dead. We honor our heroes here in Council Bluffs.

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[Danna Kehm] We're at the Hoff Family Arts and Cultural Center. It is home to five arts and cultural non-profits. PACE, Pottawattamie Arts Culture and Entertainment, American Midwest Ballet, Chanticleer Theater, Kanesville Symphony Orchestra and Kitchen Council. We share this beautiful 9,500 square foot facility. We have everything from visual arts, performing arts, culinary arts, all in one space. By sharing the building, we're able to support each other's missions and ultimately be stronger by sharing the same space.

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[Narrator] Constructed in 1894 by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, this four-story Victorian brick building served as a storage and transfer house for the distribution of farm implements across the United States, creating an agricultural cornerstone in Council Bluffs.

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[Danna Kehm] There was over 24 farm implement companies in town. 17 of them were located in this implement district where we are now. It was a huge part of why Council Bluffs was so successful, especially as being the start of the Transcontinental Railroad. This space and this implement district, Council Bluffs, had 11 rail lines that truncated here or stopped here before it went into the Transcontinental Railroad. So, railroad was critical to Council Bluffs and its growth as well as the growth of the agricultural industry. And that is really why this district existed was to help get that farm equipment out to the U.S. using those rail lines.

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[Narrator] The McCormick Harvesting Machine Company closed its doors in 1964. Despite once being the anchor of Council Bluffs' implement district, the building would be used as a storage location before sitting empty for nearly 20 years. In 2012, the McCormick Warehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places and in 2016 it became home to Pottawattamie Arts Culture and Entertainment, a non-profit community arts group known as PACE. With financial support from Council Bluffs natives Dr. Ted and Polly Hoff, PACE embarked upon a major restoration project, including a brand new wing to transform the property into a cultural destination. Construction began in 2016 and the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center opened in 2020.

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[Danna Kehm] It was wonderful to try to restore this building because it, first of all, had great bones. And it was a big, beautiful, open warehouse. So, we tried to maintain as much as possible when it came to the original building. So, as you walk through the space you'll see beautiful columns, the original paint, we kept some of the nicks and things that are found in the pillars. You'll look up and see wonderful historic beams, the cast iron moldings that help keep the building in place and helped prevent fires in the early fire prevention, and you'll just see the industrial beauty of the building with the exposed brick and the hardwood floors. And we truly wanted to maintain that to honor the integrity of the building and honor the history of what this building was originally used for, which was the storage of farm equipment.

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[Narrator] Wooden doors throughout the McCormick Building have been meticulously maintained and restored. Outward swinging freight doors lead to a former loading dock, which has been repurposed into a common area.

[Danna Kehm] We took special care to maintain and restore the wrap around loading dock. And this dock currently serves as our wrap around patio. So, it is a beautiful space for us to showcase the building as well as provide another gathering space for the building.

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[Narrator] Each of the large windows throughout the warehouse building are replicas designed from two original windows that remained intact.

[Danna Kehm] One of the best spaces in the building is the fourth floor gallery because the floor plan actually looks very similar to the original warehouse. And in this space, you can really see the charm and the history and the original use of the space.

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[Danna Kehm] We are very fortunate to have Grant Wood, who was actually in Council Bluffs in the 1920s, he painted some very beautiful murals in one of the historic hotels in town. And we are now the permanent home for those murals. The beauty about that is it helps capture our history and helps us remember how important not only our community is, but also how important art is for our community.

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[Narrator] From the outside, the old McCormick Building embraces its history, proudly presenting itself as the community staple it once was and has always been.

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[Danna Kehm] Part of that, the decision to keep that title and that paining on the outside of the building was because the farming industry was so important to Council Bluffs and it really led to sort of the agricultural boom for Council Bluffs right around the turn of the century. Obviously, it's a huge industry for Iowa. It really fueled the economy for a lot of Council Bluffs and the surrounding farms. So, for us it was important to make sure that that was still visible and we are still honoring the history and what this building stood for, for many, many years.

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[Danna Kehm] As we got into the visioning process and talking with the arts partners that were going to be sharing this space, we realized that even though this is a big, beautiful warehouse, it wasn't necessarily going to meet all of the needs that we had for the performing arts partners, especially the theater space and the ballet space. They needed a performing arts center to be able to do everything that they needed to do to grow and become successful. And so that led to the creation of our addition, the actual performing arts center.

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[Narrator] PACE and the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center worked closely with the National Park Service to make sure the project honored the integrity of the site and provided a historical reference to what came before. Today, it is one of the largest additions on a historic property in the United States.

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[Danna Kehm] So, when you look at the building, we took careful pains to make sure it was a cousin, not a twin of the building. And that was directly by feedback that we got from the National Park Service. So, you'll see a lot of the same scale, a lot of the same lines. I would hope that you would be amazed by all of the wonderful things we have going on within the space. It's not uncommon for us to hear wow, is this really Council Bluffs? Do we really have a world class arts and culture center right here in Council Bluffs? Absolutely, we do.

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[Danna Kehm] Whether you're taking a ballet class or you're taking a cooking class or you're participating in the children's theater on stage or you're taking one of our pottery classes, that you realize how important the arts are for our community and how important this building is for our community.

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[Danna Kehm] I think it's important for us to remember where we came from and where we want to go. And I think history allows us to do that and the buildings that we use allow us to remember where we came from. And again, this building was so important for our community and this district was so important for our community that we wanted to make sure that we provided a great tenant for it to make sure it survives for another 150 years.

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[Narrator] In downtown Council Bluffs near the intersection of 4th Street and Story, sits the Bregant House. Nestled tightly between two larger homes, this quaint three-quarter sized 1912 Craftsman bungalow was built specifically for entertainers Jean and Inez Bregant.

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[Michelle Mutchler-Burns] Jean was 46 inches tall. Inez was 42 inches tall. It was custom built for their special needs.

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[Narrator] The Bregant's were Vaudeville performers at Coney Island in the early 1900s. They were married in 1905. And in 1906, they decided to move back to Inez's hometown of Council Bluffs.

[Michelle Mutchler-Burns] And so when they came back here, Jean opened a grocery store on North 8th Street. And they went in to buy candy for the grocery store from the John G. Woodward, The Candy Men of Iowa, the candy store or a candy company. And essentially, they became affiliated with that because John G. Woodward had a marketing idea for them. He wanted to use them as his, basically his representatives. So, they represented themselves as the Woodward Candy Kids.

[Narrator] Jean and Inez traveled across a 20-state territory representing the Woodward Candy Company. Their images were seen all over the United States on Woodward advertisements, posters and products.

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[Michelle Mutchler-Burns] They were unique. They dressed the part. They talked the part. They represented Woodward Candy traveling.

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[Michelle Mutchler-Burns] They had their name out there and they got the Woodward Candy name out there as well. It's a charming story, it really is.

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[Narrator] The Bregant's would spend the rest of their lives in the home until Inez passed away in 1969. After some years as a rental property, the house was purchased in 2012 by the non-profit organization Preserve Council Bluffs, with help from an anonymous donor. It has since been restored and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

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[Narrator] Though there is no record of the architect, the designer of the Bregant House put careful consideration into this one-of-a-kind Craftsman bungalow.

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[Michelle Mutchler-Burns] These are the original leaded glass windows and they have been redone, the ones that flank the fireplace, the piano window and the dining room window, and this is the original glass. The light switches are all at a lower level. The built-in cabinetry in the dining room is at a lower level. And you can see the fireplace mantle is low, the built-in boxes on either side that flank the fireplace are also low. And that served as seating. They had average sized friends and so the ceiling is eight feet high. And the one thing that sets it out and makes it appear proportional is instead of this being a 1x6 on the edges, it's actually 1x4 and three-quarters. And so, when people walk in, I think they're surprised that it appears to be proportional. Most people think they're going to have to duck when they walk in the door. They don't envision that it's going to have an eight-foot ceiling and things like that. People feel pretty comfortable here. They feel like they could live here, of course updating some furniture and things like that, but it really doesn't come across as all that tiny, per se. I do refer to it as the original tiny house. Again, a 700 square foot home, one bedroom, one bath, a beautiful dining room built in and things like that. And so, it was pretty much the style of the times. There's not another one like this on the planet.

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[Michelle Mutchler-Burns] It's really tiny.

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[Narrator] The Squirrel Cage Jail is a national historic landmark known for its unique design and history of isolation.

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[Narrator] Built in 1885 by architect William H. Brown and engineer Benjamin F. Haugh, both of Indiana, this three-story Victorian gothic brick rotary confinement served as the Pottawattamie County Jail until 1969.

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[Narrator] 18 rotary jails were built across the United States. But today, the Squirrel Cage Jail is one of only three remaining.

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[Kat Slaughter] It's called a squirrel cage because it rotates. All three levels of cells would rotate as one large piece. And it was meant to do that continuously, which they tried. It had a few issues. So, it turned where they would just turn it when they would have inmates going in and out of the cells up until 1960 when it was found too dangerous to continue rotation. They stopped rotation, they cut openings into some of the cells, and they used it for another nine years after that. So, it becomes a free-for-all until December of 1969. It was the county jail for 84 years.

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[Narrator] The unusual design was intended to make the jail more secure and efficient. With only one point of entry, a single jailer could rotate the cylindrical structure for the loading and unloading of prisoners.

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[Kat Slaughter] The cage would be moved by hand crank. There is a hand crank on the front of each level, so all three levels. There is an entry cab. And you could use the hand crank connected by chains and gears down to the very base of the cage.

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[Kat Slaughter] It's kind of a giant gear as the base as well that would move by manpower. It's 90,000 pounds empty. When it was perfectly aligned it was easy to move. They say a child could move it in the early years. As time goes on, buildings expand and contract, especially in the Midwest. And so, it has done that and it is at least an inch or two off gear alignment, making it harder to rotate.

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[Kat Slaughter] This building is kind of untouched. We're very lucky. It went from a jail to a museum. Most buildings aren't that lucky. There is usually something in between. But it closes as a jail in 1969, December of 1969, so basically the end of that year. The county takes out their stuff. The jailer and wife that live here remove their things in 1970. And then it is owned by the Parks Board for a little while, but the Historical Society is already in here getting it ready to be a museum. So, it was flipped basically to a museum immediately.

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[Kat Slaughter] Pretty much everything is original. The cells haven't been changed very much since 1885. It is all one piece, so to speak. Stuff you would see in your cell if you were arrested is very similar to today. You'd have the gray walls. If you're on the bottom bunk you're just looking up at the metal above you. The bunks are maybe as wide to my elbows. We've had to replace small things over the years like the wood on the frames. That just doesn't last 138 years as much as we'd like. The bars are all original. We've done some reworking of the masonry, but very little changing it out. It's to the original aesthetic that it was. We've had patches over the years because we are an old facility.

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[Kat Slaughter] The cement floor is original, that's why it's nice and pitted back here, because there have been a few people walking over the floors in 138 years. The walls are original. All of the carvings in the walls, the smoke, names on the ceiling, that is all done by the inmates as well.

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[Narrator] The barrier surrounding the building has also stood the test of time, keeping what belongs outside out and inside in for well over a century.

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[Kat Slaughter] The metal fence with the lovely spikes is original. We actually had an attempted escape of an inmate and he got outside and his pant leg got stuck on one of those nice spikes on top.

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[Kat Slaughter] So, the fourth floor is where the jailer and his family live because this building is staffed by two people. So, it's a little apartment on the fourth floor. But there is still only one kitchen in the facility. So, if you lived here you would have to go downstairs to the first-floor kitchen. They have a bedroom, depending on the year two bedrooms, later on you get an actual bathroom on the fourth floor, which I'm sure was exciting. And there is a bedroom and a living room up there. And the windows are original. They are huge arch windows that bring in basically all of the light to that fourth floor. They're absolutely stunning.

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[Kat Slaughter] I think it's important to keep all structures and this one specifically because jails give us an insight into the human mind when it was built and what's going on in our economy, what is going on in our nation at the time. This jail was built in the time of Queen Victoria. By the time it closes we've landed on the moon. So, it gives us a really good time capsule of how things were going on during that time period. We were open for eight and a half decades so there was a lot of change and you can see that throughout the whole facility when it comes to the structure, to the stuff that is written on the walls. Nice time capsule.

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[Narrator] Today, the Squirrel Cage Jail is preserved as a museum and is open for tours offering visitors a glimpse into a bygone era and its approach to incarceration.

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[Tina Caloud] Iowa School for the Deaf is unique. When our students come here, they find their real identity. They learn who they are as a deaf person. They learn their language. They learn how to be a whole person. Identity, language, culture. They have access to direct instruction from their teachers. They don't need to use interpreters in order to communicate with their teachers and their peers.

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[Narrator] The Iowa School for the Deaf has been helping students thrive both academically and socially since 1855.

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[Narrator] Founded in Iowa City by Edmund Booth and William Ijams, the school's administrators eventually chose a more accessible location to accommodate years of growing enrollment.

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[Tina Caloud] In the western part of Iowa in Council Bluffs, there was an area, a strong railroad town where there was land available. 80 acres sold for $1,200. The state decided it was a good place for us to move. So, in 1870, we moved to Council Bluffs.

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[Narrator] A central building was constructed along with an industrial complex, a farm and a powerhouse. In the fall of 1870, underserved deaf and hard of hearing students from all over Iowa arrived at an educational facility built specifically with their needs in mind.

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[Tina Caloud] Students would come and stay during the school for nine months and go home in the summer. They used the railroad to travel home with no staff. Some kids, five, six, ten, all the way up to age eighteen rode the train by themselves across the state to meet their parents wherever their parents lived all around the state of Iowa.

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[Tina Caloud] In the 1870s there was a terrible fire. It destroyed the building. Some students were sent home at the time and they were not able to come back until the following year. Some students stayed in a part of the building that had not been damaged, but then later that year a tornado came through and damaged the remainder of the building. It was a terrible year for this campus. They built the administration building again and made sure that each floor was very thick to make the building stronger

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[Tina Caloud] Education for the deaf is so important that they built this building, they invested quite a bit of money in order to build it structurally sound so that the students would be safe, educated here. And we can see now it is still standing. It has lasted since that renovation. It was completed near 1910 and it has stood since.

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[Tina Caloud] The walls that you see are all original. Nothing has been removed or changed. In the dorm, the boys lived on one side and the girls lived on the other side. And our dorms are still there as they were. There used to be an infirmary on the fifth floor of this building. And as the years went on and our student population grew, the state realized that they needed to add additional buildings on campus. They added wings to this building. They added other buildings on campus. They built an infirmary building on campus and that was in the 1930s.

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[Tina Caloud] They built a barn. There was a barn there but, in the fire, it was destroyed so they built a new one.

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[Narrator] The front of this sturdy brick building is original to the renovation of 1910 and the shape has become iconic to the city of Council Bluffs.

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[Tina Caloud] After the great fire, the state spent quite a bit of money adding a roof with a particular design on it and that design is original. Up on the fifth floor where you see the cupula you see there is an open-air area around it. If you pull that rod down, it opens up the vents in order to allow open air circulation into the cupula. And our powerhouse does sometimes have to go up there and open it to let the area air out.

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[Tina Caloud] It is still up there for circulation. When you go up there, if you open those vents for circulation and you look through them, you can see across the river to Omaha, Nebraska. It's a really beautiful view.

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[Tina Caloud] Before I came here as a student, I did not have a full identity. I was in a mainstream program and I had to follow an interpreter around all day long. People saw me and said, oh she's the deaf girl. I was the deaf girl. But when I came to the Iowa School for the Deaf, I met people who were like me.

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[Tina Caloud] I didn't have to rely on interpreters. I sat in class with teachers who signed and I had direct interaction with them. I started to learn about who I am as Tina. People just saw me as Tina, not as the deaf person. And many of our students have the same experience when they come here. They find their identity. They find out who they are. They have access to language and to their culture. That makes this feel like home to many of our alumni. They do not face the same barriers here that they do in public schools. They are able to thrive academically. They are able to participate in different activities just like any other hearing student at a public school has that opportunity, our students have that opportunity here.

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[Narrator] For more than 150 years, Council Bluffs has welcomed students to the Iowa School for the Deaf to find self-expression and fraternity and to join the ranks of those whose lives were transformed at this historic campus.

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[Narrator] A railroad town in Western Iowa.

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A living testament to American history and innovation.

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[Narrator] A place where industry and progress came together to build a gateway to a new frontier, where a community connected a continent, its people and their story.

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[Narrator] A story that lives on in the Historic Buildings of Iowa: Council Bluffs.

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Funding for this program is provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation, generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS.