Kleinschmidt Architectural History

John Kleinschmidt was a professor of French at Grinnell College with a passion for local history. This collection features many of the documents and photographs that he compiled about the history of both the Grinnell College campus and the greater Grinnell community.

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Photographs of the Italianate house at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Park Street built in the late 1850s by H. G. Little.
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Photograph of the damage to the business district, seen northeast across the railroad to the Congregational Church, caused by the 1889 fire. In 1891 another fire destroyed the center of the block to the north.
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Photograph of damage to the business district caused by the fire of 1889. The view is northeast across the railroad to the Congregational Church; Central Park is on the right. As a result of the fire, the City Council set up a fire zone and forbade the use of wooden awnings. The width of Commercial Street, which varied, also was made uniform.
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Views of the ruins left by the Fire of 1891.
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The First Congregational Church, known as the Old Stone Church, was built in 1877 on the site of J. B. Grinnell's original Congregational Church. It was demolished in 1951.
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Photograph of the First Methodist Church at Fifth Avenue and Park Street. The church was later moved to 616 Fourth Avenue, where it was used as an armory for about a year before it was destroyed by fire in 1896.
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Photographs of commercial buildings on the north side of Fourth Avenue.
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Photograph of the Armory building at 816 Fifth Avenue. It was constructed of rock face concrete blocks in 1907 and leased to the Grinnell Armory Association for 10 years.
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Photograph of a horse-drawn wagon carrying two men south of Fourth Avenue. The Eagle Block building (1879), recognizable by the eagle sculpture atop its pediment, is visible in the background.
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Photograph of the Mack Building on the corner of Broad and Commercial Streets. Built in 1889, it originally housed two storefronts; in 1894, two additions to the south formed the Mack Hotel.
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Photograph of a horse-drawn cart in front of Preston's General Store and a drug store on Main Street.
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Photograph of the steam power plant located at the corner of Second Avenue and Main Street. It was built in 1894 of brick and is no longer standing.
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Photograph of the destruction at Seventh Avenue and Broad Street, looking west, following the cyclone of 1882. The storm left the house in the foreground, owned by Charles F. Craver, in ruins. The house in the background, owned by L. C. Phelps, lost its roof and east wall.
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Photograph of the aftermath of the 1882 cyclone that destroyed much of the town of Grinnell. Broad Street is at left, and Seventh Avenue runs through the center of the image.
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Photographs of the house formerly located at the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue and West Street.
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Photograph of the house at Sixth Avenue and Broad Street, built sometime before 1884. It was originally owned by George Magoun, the first president of Iowa (Grinnell) College. The house, which faced east onto Broad Street, did not originally have a number, as the town began numbering houses and buildings in 1893.
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Photograph of the Spaulding Building in the central business district at 914-918 Main Street.
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Photographs of the Morrison & McIntosh Glove Factory, located at Third Avenue and Broad Street.