My June column highlighted French cultural and artistic influences in Iowa’s courthouses. The latest counties under consideration (Jones, Linn, Benton, Tama, Marshall, Story, Boone, Greene, Carroll, Crawford, Monona) offer additional examples of French connections.
The informal nickname of Marshalltown, “Paris of the Prairie,” is partly an homage to its imposing architecture, such as the 1886 Classical Revival Marshall County Courthouse. It’s partly a recognition of its lax application of Prohibition-era laws, resulting in a vibrant nightlife which echoed the Roaring Twenties atmosphere of Paris, France. The welcoming spirit of Marshall County, whose European settlers came from Germany, Ireland, and Norway, extended in the 21st century to Hispanic residents who constitute 21% of the population. With more than 120,000 speakers, Spanish is the most common non-English language in Iowa today.
Cedar Rapids (Linn), situated 30 minutes north of Iowa City, is particularly dear to my heart for its association with my kids’ childhood years. We were frequent visitors to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, with its extensive collection of Grant Wood (1891-1942), an Anamosa (Jones) native – and to the Grant Wood Studio, situated above a mortuary carriage house, where he created his most famous works – the hyper-iconic “American Gothic,” the playful “Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” and the ironic “Daughters of the Revolution.” Many a picnic has been consumed in the formal gardens of the Queen Anne-style NRHP-listed Brucemore mansion (1886) – often coinciding with Theatre Cedar Rapids or Cedar Rapids Opera summer productions presented on the Brucemore lawn. Fond memories extend to the Cedar Rapids Symphony children’s concerts which ignited our interest in friendly classics such as Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and Benjamin Britten’s “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” The National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, a Smithsonian Affiliate, offers displays and exhibitions appealing to visitors of all ages, dedicated to the Bohemian and Moravian immigrants who helped build Cedar Rapids. The location of the Cedar Rapids administrative buildings, including the Beaux-Arts Linn County Courthouse, is noteworthy. Constructed on May’s Island in the middle of the Cedar River, the complex was inspired by Paris’ Île de la Cité – the Seine River island confined administrative heart of France.
Ames (Story) is the home of one of Iowa’s three public universities, Iowa State University, which, along with the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, Black Hawk) and the University of Iowa (Iowa City, Johnson), is governed by the Iowa Board of Regents. The University of Iowa, founded in 1847, one year after Iowa’s designation as a state, was the first public university in the U.S. to admit women on an equal basis with men, starting in 1855. Created in 1858, Iowa State, first a college, now a university, was one of the first land-grant research centers designated by the 1862 Morriss Act, which granted federal land for the establishment of agricultural and technical colleges. When I visited the campus of the University of Northern Iowa (founded in 1876) earlier this year, I was delighted to come across a one-room schoolhouse, the Marshall Center School, affiliated with the Schindler Education Center. Built in 1893 in Marshall Township, Pocahontas County, it was moved to its current location in 1988. It is a fitting addition to a university formerly known as the Iowa State Teachers College, the alma mater of my father-in-law, Ed Barker, who received his BA in social studies and business education in 1950.
Other notable sites include the Tama (1866) and Monona (1874) Romanesque style courthouses, the Boone County 1917 Renaissance Revival courthouse, the Carroll 1965 Moderne courthouse, and the elegant Crawford (1904-1905), Benton (1906), and Greene (1918) Beaux-Arts courthouses. The Greene County Courthouse complex features a 165-foot Brutalist bell tower, which chimes on the quarter-hour, thus warranting the motto “Come for the view, stay for the bells.” The beautifully restored Jefferson Carnegie Library and the current remodeling of the Sierra Community Theatre complete the architectural ensemble of Jefferson. By far the most conspicuous building is the extravagant castle of Anamosa (Jones), housing the largest prison in Iowa, the Anamosa State Penitentiary. The exceptionally lovely city of Vinton (Benton) used to host the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, which opened in 1852. Mary Ingalls, the sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of “Little House on the Prairie,” was a graduate in 1889.
Johnson County will be in the August column. I have visited 68 counties so far. We are getting close!
Professor Anna Barker teaches in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Russian Program and in the Ul Tippie College of Business Marketing. Her 2024-2025 Substack commentary focuses on the works of Dostoevsky, Dumas, and Jókai Mór. Her past tutorials exploring the intersection of history, art, and literature in works such as Gilgamesh, Paradise Lost, Les Misérables, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Brothers Karamazov can be found at Anna Barker’s Classics Reading Series (Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature).
This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa’s 99: from Jones County to Monona County | Column
Reporting by Anna Barker / Iowa City Press-Citizen
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