IOWA INN

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

IOWA INN. Despite the location in the Odd Fellows Hall, the interest of the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION (Y.M.C.A.) in having its own building remained. On November 11, 1893 it was announced that the organization had paid $8,500 for a lot and house near the corner of 9th and Iowa. Among the contributions was a deed to half of a double store on Clay in the will of Leo Ziepprecht upon the death of his grandmother. (1)

On March 30, 1894, Henry L. STOUT gave a check drawn on the SECOND NATIONAL BANK to C. H. Fiegenbaum representing the Y.M.C.A. for his home, valued at $20,000, at the corner of Ninth and Iowa STREETS. Stout had been interested in the work of the Y.M.C.A. by Fred B. SMITH who had served as the local head of the organization since 1892. Stout's home was used as the organization's headquarters. There was one stipulation to the gift. This was that the organization raise $7,000 with which to build a gymnasium. (2) In the first day of asking for donations, a committee received $3,000. (3) By April 1, 1894 the money had been collected.

Construction of the Stout Auditorium began in June 1894. When finished the 51' by 81' building contained a 51' by 67' gymnasium that began in the basement and took up the first floor. The remainder of the basement was used for a locker room. The part of the first floor, equal in size to the locker room below was planned for toilets; bath rooms including nine baths, two tubs and seven showers; closets and the director's office. A running track was planned around the gymnasium which was to be supplied with various types of training equipment. The entire second floor was devoted to an auditorium with a seating capacity of 931. For light and ventilation, the building had twenty-three large windows on the southern side and and fifteen more on both the alley and northern side. Remodeling on the Stout home was expected to cost $10,000. This would include both gas and electric lighting fixtures, hardwood floors on the first level, and carpeting on the second. The first floor would include a parlor, reading rooms, and game rooms. The second floor was devoted entirely for educational classes. (4) In 2010 the building constructed in 1894 had been converted into the Henry Stout Senior Apartments.

In 1916 the Stout home was demolished and replaced by a five-story building costing $175,000. This structure housed administrative offices, two meeting rooms, sixty-two residence rooms, lockers, club room, handball court, swimming pool, weightlifting room, and health center which in 1951 was advertised as providing baths. When the building was sold in 1970, it was renamed the Iowa Inn.

In 1980 the Telegraph Herald described the Iowa Inn's residents as:

       ...people live there because they have no place else to go--the old ones stay bcause
       they can't afford anything better; the mentally handicapped ones stay because they have
       been sent there by the county. The squalid rooms are their homes. (5)

City Health Director Art Roth commented, "We can't just those those people out in the street. We're working with the owners." The Iowa Inn pointed to problems with the city's multiple dwelling code--it was not being enforced. In 1979 city inspectors visiting the building had found cockroaches everywhere, hot plates in the rooms, improper fire exits and general need for interior and exterior repairs. The owners were advised that work needed to be done, but despite no going back to check on any work a multiple dwelling license was issued. The city simply had too few inspectors to perform follow-up checks. When inspectors did return, no work had been done and conditions had worsened with leaking or plugs toilets of which there was only one per floor. The Iowa Inn owners did not have their license revoked and the building was not closed.

Tenants had to be considered. They had no place to go. In 1980 the county would pay a person's rent for sixty days if the person was in financial need. The maximum amount paid was $95.00 for an efficiency and $108.00 for a one-bedroom apartment. Neither could be found, so people returned to the Iowa Inn and paid $18.00. The Iowa Inn was used by the county as its only rooming house for men. While the Iowa Inn was intended for temporary housing, the average stay was six to seven months. Some were allowed to remain their permanently in the thought they could not manage anywhere else. Women were found rooms in other hotels or at rooming houses. (6)

In 1994 a room cost $10.00 per night, $35 per week, or $125 per month. Perhaps the oldest resident was one man who had lived there for twenty years. The third floor was still not in use because of a fire in 1993 and each floor had only one shower. Since there was no elevator, one resident who had lost several toes to diabetes had to leave his wheelchair in the lobby and then pull himself up two flights of stairs to his room. (7)

In May, 1997 the City Council voted to loan the Iowa Housing Corporation, a Des Moines non-profit, $245,00 to purchase the Iowa Inn. At the time, the plan was to renovate it and convert it into permanent low and moderate income housing. Because federal money was to be used, the thirteen residents each received relocation assistance: (8)

       1. $250 to cover moving expenses
       2. the difference between the current monthly rent at the Inn, $140, 
          and the rent for the new room including utilities for 42 months
       3. money to cover all costs associated with moving such as down
          payment and utilities

On November 17, 1997 the Dubuque City Council passed two resolutions designed to assist Stout Place Apartments, a partnership of the Iowa Housing Corporation and engineer John Hart. The plan was to demolish the Iowa Inn, renovate the 102-year-old YMCA building and create twenty-four one-bedroom apartments for low and moderate-income tenants. The partnership also planned a three-story addition with two one-bedroom and six two-bedroom apartments to the north side of the YMCA building. The project was estimated to cost $3.9 million. (9) By including the project in the Downtown Urban Renewal District, the council made the work eligible for a $300,000 loan from the city's downtown rehabilitation program. Work was to begin in the spring of 1998. (10)

The intended project never took place. The building stood vacant beginning Christmas Eve, 1997 and became a detriment to downtown-revitalization.

In July 2002, work was coming to an end transforming the former YMCA building into affordable apartments for low-income renters aged 55 and older. The building was even given a place on the NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES. The renamed Henry Stout Senior Apartments, a $4.4 million redevelopment project, expected its first tenant to move in on July 24th. Seven of the 33 apartments had already been leased. MetroPlains Development of St. Paul, Minnesota, a for-profit development firm which carried out the project, found in an August 2000 market survey that Dubuque could use more affordable senior housing. The vacancy rate for low-income senior projects was less than 1 percent. (11)

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Source:

1. "A Y. M. C. A. Building," Dubuque Daily Herald, November 11, 1892, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18921111&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

2. "A Most Generous Offer," Dubuque Daily Herald, March 27, 1894, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18940327&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

3. "A Liberal Response," Dubuque Daily Herald, March 28, 1894, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18940328&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

4. "The Stout Auditorium," Dubuque Daily Herald, June 14, 1894, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=_OG5zn83XeQC&dat=18940614&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

5. Hendricks, Mike, "Iowa Inn Highlights Problems With City's Inspection Code," Telegraph Herald, October 26, 1980, p. 13

6. Ibid.

7. Guralnick, David, "A Room at the Inn," Telegraph Herald, July 17, 1994, p. 21

8. McDermott, Brad. "Iowa Inn Residents Receive Eviction Notices," Telegraph Herald, December 23, 1997, p. 1A

9. McDermott, Brad. "City Clears Way for Low-Income Housing," Telegraph Herald, November 18, 1997, p. 1A

10. Ibid.

11. Coyle, Erin, "Senior Complex Nears Completion," Telegraph Herald, July 23, 2002, p. 1

The 1972 through 1993 Dubuque City Directory listed 125 W. 9th St.