Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Grinnell in Vintage Postcards
    Grinnell in Vintage Postcards
    Grinnell in Vintage Postcards
    Ebook152 pages42 minutes

    Grinnell in Vintage Postcards

    By Bill Menner

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    From an abolitionist hotbed to the home of a prestigious liberal arts college, Grinnell, Iowa, is known across the country as a "jewel of the prairie." Originally conceived as a Congregationalist utopia, Grinnell developed a reputation as a highly-educated community with a wealth of incredible architecture. It was also a turn-of-the-century industrial hub, despite a population of less than 5,000, where buggies, early automobiles, and gloves were made.

    The historic postcards in this book recall a community on the verge of transition, from a small agriculture-based town on the prairie to a thriving center of commerce and higher education. They provide a remarkable glimpse of the buildings that make up what is now a "Historic Commercial District" on the National Register of Historic Places. Still others are visual reminders of great buildings-both in the community and on the Grinnell College campus-that now exist only in memory.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 25, 2004
    ISBN9781439614846
    Grinnell in Vintage Postcards
    Author

    Bill Menner

    Bill Menner is the executive director of Grinnell Renaissance, a downtown revitalization organization. He previously worked as a political reporter for public radio stations in Iowa and Ohio, and has written for United Press International. He lives in Grinnell with his wife, a Grinnell College political scientist, and their four children.

    Related to Grinnell in Vintage Postcards

    Related ebooks

    Photography For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Front Words

      Dec 15, 2023

      Front Words
      4 min read

    • Article

      West Words

      Sep 29, 2020

      ‘The greater portion of the laborers employed by us are Chinese, who constitute a large element in the population of California. Without them it would be impossible to complete the western portion of this great national enterprise within the time req

      3 min read

    • Article

      Get Your Kicks in Gillespie

      Mar 8, 2022

      Can you believe that here we are in March of 2022, and the COVID-19 situation is still with us, still disrupting our daily lives, cancelling our coin shows, and taking up all the news? I can’t. I am fully vaxxed and boosted, and I am tired of hearing

      3 min read

    • Article

      Huntingburg—An Old Friend

      Dec 30, 2019

      Huntingburg—An Old Friend
      5 min read

    • Article

      Defining Grant’s Legacy

      Jun 1, 2021

      Defining Grant’s Legacy
      2 min read

    • Article

      Small Town Colorado Notes

      Oct 4, 2022

      Small Town Colorado Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Telling Our Stories

      Jun 22, 2018

      Telling Our Stories
      3 min read

    • Article

      Highways and hobbies

      Feb 27, 2024

      Highways and hobbies
      9 min read

    • Article

      Pieces Of History: The Story Of Gee’s Bend

      Aug 4, 2021

      Quilts are what propelled the small community of Gee’s Bend into the headlines, so it is fitting their quilts tell the Gee’s Bend tale… Long before the quilts of Gee’s Bend hung in museums of Fine Art, the women of Boykin, Alabama were making quilt

      6 min read

    • Article

      Union Bay Historical Society

      Sep 3, 2019

      Union Bay Historical Society
      3 min read

    • Article

      Plight At The Museum

      Dec 1, 2018

      “LET ME SHOW YOU SOME OF my favorite things,” says Bill Green. It’s just before 10 on a chilly October morning, and we’re standing in the entryway to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, 19 miles south of Amarillo. Outside, on the campus

      10 min read

    • Article

      Gene Autry in Oklahoma

      Mar 5, 2024

      Gene Autry in Oklahoma
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mosaic

      Nov 26, 2019

      Mosaic
      5 min read

    • Article

      EXTERIOR Explorations

      Apr 21, 2020

      EXTERIOR Explorations
      3 min read

    • Article

      You Bet Your Booth

      Jul 21, 2020

      You Bet Your Booth
      13 min read

    • Article

      Century Club 100 YEARS

      Nov 25, 2021

      Century Club 100 YEARS
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Grinnell in Vintage Postcards

    4/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Grinnell in Vintage Postcards - Bill Menner

      them.

      INTRODUCTION

      Grinnell, Iowa, isn’t your typical small town on the prairie. That’s as much the case today as it was in 1854, when the Reverend J.B. Grinnell arrived with a zealous band of New England Congregationalists determined to establish an abolitionist community with a commitment to education.

      When they arrived, they found a treeless prairie with great promise. Grinnell had inside information that the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad would be extended, and that a train depot would be located near the site. That, and the fact that Iowa was a free state that did not permit slavery, was enough to convince the group they had found a location for their Congregationalist utopia.

      Grinnell is a community that has thrived on activism, vision and persistence. It welcomed John Brown on his final journey that ultimately led him to Harper’s Ferry. It survived a series of disasters, including an 1882 tornado that devastated the community and killed 40 people. It invited architect Louis Sullivan, during the final decade of his life, to create a masterpiece (one of his jewel-box banks, the Merchants National Bank building). And it helped nurture a small college into one of the finest liberal arts institutions in the country.

      Grinnell College has, in many ways, helped drive the growth of the community. But the town-gown relationship has been mutually advantageous. When he first planned the community, J.B. Grinnell included 170 acres for a university. He founded Grinnell University in 1857, and two years later lured Iowa College from Davenport to merge with his small school. The presence of a college—even a small Western college—attracted students and faculty who might not otherwise reside in, or even visit, a small prairie town.

      The city, however, contributed its share to the college’s success. For example, local boys Harry Hopkins and Robert Noyce chose to stay in Grinnell for their undergraduate studies. Hopkins wound up shaping the New Deal while serving as President Franklin Roosevelt’s closest adviser. Noyce invented the integrated circuit and co-founded Intel Corporation.

      Transportation also played a vital role in Grinnell’s development. From the railroad that first attracted J.B. Grinnell to the Pony Express route and Mormon handcart trail that passed nearby, Grinnell has been a hub of transportation innovation.

      H.W. Spaulding founded a buggy manufacturing firm in Grinnell in 1876, and eventually branched into the automobile business. A preview of things to come occurred in 1913, when a Spaulding auto defeated the Rock Island Railroad’s fast mail train in a race along the River-to-River Road (Highway 6) from Davenport to Council Bluffs.

      Grinnellian Billy Robinson set a record of his own in 1914, that for non-stop flight. He flew an airplane (with the radial engine he developed) 370 miles from Des Moines to Kentland, Indiana. Robinson died in a plane crash two years later, but his pioneering achievements were integral to the aviation industry.

      Transportation, via the automobile age, impacted Grinnell in another way. As privatelyowned vehicles became more common, the need for roads increased. And Grinnell sat squarely on Highway 6, one of the primary east-west thoroughfares.

      Hence, it became a destination. Travelers passed through Grinnell on Highway 6. As they matriculated, college students developed four-year relationships with the community. Residents of nearby farm communities and rural farmsteads saw Grinnell as their closest source of goods, social interaction, and entertainment. The town grew, and as this book indicates, so too did the many positive depictions of Grinnell in both commercial and real-photograph postcards.

      These historic impressions of Grinnell fascinate modern-day residents. Many of the landmarks featured in these sometimes century-old postcards remain landmarks today. The structural core of downtown Grinnell has changed little in the last 100 years. Yet the missing pieces prominent in many postcards—the old Congregational church, the Iowa Theatre, and Blair, Chicago, and Alumni Halls on campus—prompt more questions than answers.

      Grinnell remains a destination today. It sits four miles from a major thoroughfare (Interstate 80), the college lures students from all 50 states and 50 foreign countries, and its wonderfully-reserved buildings attract architects and architecture devotees alike.

      The postcards in this book give us a glimpse of another time. They show the people and the places that helped shape the community, and provide a visual link to the past.

      One

      GO WEST!

      Here are two of Grinnell’s most famous landmarks:

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1