URBAN RENEWAL

URBAN RENEWAL (1960s and 1970s). Wayne Andrew Norman, Sr. once credited Dubuque with having so many styles of architecture because of the growth of its many industries. (1) As "captains of industry" rose, they constructed their homes in the style popular at the time. Often industries developed so quickly that one style of architecture might be seen right next to another.

Dubuque's unusually rich architectural heritage allowed the belief to persist that the loss of a landmark could be afforded. In 1932 Dubuque's first OCTAGON STYLE ARCHITECTURE home was torn down. The demolition contractor remarked that he had never seen a building so well constructed--eight inch thick concrete walls reinforced in the corners with oak branches embedded in the mortar. (2) The list of significant landmarks lost in Dubuque, however, grew to include the Illinois Central Railroad passenger depot; ELEVENTH STREET ELEVATED RAILROAD; DUBUQUE CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE; "Ridgemount," the James Langworthy House; the James Marsh residence; James BEACH home; William H. PEABODY house; MILWAUKEE RAILROAD SHOPS; Old Central Engine House; Turner Hall; John Emerson house; Bissell-Babbage-Andrew McDonald house; and GREYSTONE. (3) In 1969 the MAJESTIC THEATRE was scheduled for demolition. (4)

In 1974 Lawrence Sommer, former assistant city development planner for the City of Dubuque and the author of The Heritage of Dubuque: An Architectural View, applied weighted factors including rarity, architectural uniqueness, and workmanship to the buildings he surveyed in Dubuque. (4) He then grouped 535 structures into four groups:

    Group 1--Landmark structures of such irreplaceable value that
             they should be protected and preserved at almost any
             cost.
    Group 2--Generally outstanding structures of much local value
             that should be protected from demolition or alteration
    Group 3--More common structures that contribute to the overall
             character of Dubuque
    Group 4--Minor background structures that may have details worthy
             of note.

Sommer placed 23 structures in Group 1; 126 buildings were placed in Group 2; 258 structures entered Group 3 and 128 were in Group 4. Of the twenty-three buildings in Group 1, he found three to be dilapidated and four deteriorating. There were eight dilapidated and 18 deteriorating buildings in Group 2. Group three had six dilapidated and 89 deteriorating structures while Group 4 had five dilapidated and 40 deteriorating buildings. Nearly one-third of the 535 significant structures were deteriorating or dilapidated. (5)

Dan Savage in his book Skipping Toward Gomorrah went to far as to describe Dubuque as:

    In the right light, Dubuque looks like a tintype of a smiling
    Victorian woman who has literally had half her teeth knocked out... (6)

In the mid-1970s, many watched the dissolve unit wizardry in the slide presentation of Father William E. WILKIE. Sitting in shock at the "before" and "after" pictures photographed decades apart of the downtown area, viewers became aware of the aftermath of urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s. (7)

Following WORLD WAR II, and continuing into the 1970s, “urban renewal” referred to public efforts to revitalize aging and decaying inner cities. (8) Dubuque, like cities across the country, was faced with the flight of business to suburban malls. Begun locally by PLAZA 20 and then KENNEDY MALL, ASBURY SQUARE, and CENTURY PLAZA, the construction of malls promised to place business near people who were occupying suburbs. Old buildings were considered an eye-sore and a barrier to efforts to rejuvenate the downtown area.

On January 17, 1962 the firm of Victor Gruen Associates was chosen by a unanimous vote of the city's Urban Renewal Consultant Selection Committee made up of citizens, local officials, and members of the city council to "guide Dubuque's urban renewal program." (9) The company was an architectural, engineering and planning organization with offices in New York, Chicago, and Beverly Hills, California.

The first task of company was to prepare a "workable program" aimed at eliminating poor living conditions in the city. This program would be submitted to the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency for approval. The second phase would be the preparation of the city's application for federal funds to begin a "community renewal survey" to determine which areas should be given renewal treatment. The cost of the workable plan and the application was estimated at being $1,100 paid entirely by the city. The actual community survey would cost between $55,000 and $80,000 with one-third paid by the city and the federal government two-thirds. The survey was expected to take two years to complete. (10)

In 1965, a 15-square bounded by Fourth, Ninth, Locust and Central was proposed for urban renewal in Dubuque. (11) In August, 1965 Cyril FERRING met with a group of members of the Chamber of Commerce to urge "a retention--but a modern one--of what you have." (12) Ferring, a resident of Chicago, had participated in that city's refurbishing of the Old Town Triangle.

    "Practically no one has what you have here, most of it has been
     destroyed." (13)

In August 1965 Gent WITTENBERG, then the deputy director of urban renewal in Toledo, Iowa, was hired as Dubuque's first director of urban renewal. The city had just received federal approval for its fifteen-block central business district urban renewal project. (14)

Looking north at 4th and Main just before urban renewal around 1969. Note that Main was one-way. Photo courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/pages/You-know-you-grew-up-in-Dubuque-Iowa-if-you-remember/130170407077838

The urban renewal included slum clearance, massive demolition and rehabilitation. (15) In 1969 the Telegraph Herald reported on an elderly woman who had lived in a downtown apartment for more than fifteen years. When fuel ran out for her wood-burning stove, she had to rely on steam from a boiling teakettle to "heat" her apartment. (16) When the relocation portion of urban renewal began around 1967 there were approximately 150 people living in the fifteen-square block urban renewal site. The majority of buildings they lived in were not up to building code standards.(17) As addressed in the Telegraph Herald article, apartments were found with no electrical outlets; single, cold-water faucets over wash basins; a single sheet of plywood used to separate one "apartment" from another; exposed wiring; and a bathtub, toilet, and wash basin located within a foot of each other. (18)

Louis Barrett, the first relocation agent for the Urban-Renewal Department, and relocation agent Vern Graham agreed that the relocation program was not so much part of urban renewal as taking responsibility the city had neglected for years. (19) To relocate a person, a new residence had to meet the standards of the City Building Department before federal renewal funds could be used. Many of the poor lived downtown because they needed close access to shopping and bus lines. For this reason, the majority of those relocated were found housing along the western and northern edges of the renewal district keeping them close to both shopping and transportation. To handle increased rents, the Urban Renewal Department, operating with a federal guideline, provided rent supplements and relocation grants. Rent supplements, an amount between the actual rent and the amount a person was able to pay, were paid monthly for five years. (20) It was hoped that after this time Social Security and old age assistance increases would be enough to replace the supplement. (21)

Demolition soon followed. In January 1971 Urban Renewal Director Gent Wittenberg reported that twenty-one buildings in the fifteen-square block area had been demolished in 1970 bringing the total of demolished buildings up to 76. (22)

Construction and rehabilitation followed demolition. In January 1971, Wittenberg reported that nearly $2 million in federal and local money had been spent on public improvements in the project area. (23) This included the first half of the TOWN CLOCK PLAZA, a 300-car parking ramp, widening and resurfacing of streets, improvements in lighting and landscaping. The sale of land had been consistent with the dozen land sales totaling $543,989. During 1970 developers had invested an estimated $350,000 in the construction of the ABELN ABSTRACT COMPANY, AMES BUSINESS MACHINE COMPANY, the Dubuque Bus Terminal, the Optometry Center and the Molo Oil Company service station. Six new buildings were scheduled for construction in the spring of 1971: Adams Realty Corporation building purchased by FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DUBUQUE, a building for Graham's Clothiers (later GRAHAM'S STYLE STORE FOR MEN, a Hartig drug store, a two-story addition to the Fischer Arcade, a Time Finance Company building, and a second building by Ames Office Supply. (24)

By 1971 private developers had spent more than $345,000. Sites rehabilitated included the Fischer Arcade, Nesler Centre, ARENZ SHOE STORE, and CLARK TRANSFER AND STORAGE COMPANY. The first of the major renovations occurred to the ROSHEK'S DEPARTMENT STORE. (25) One of the anchor businesses in the downtown area, Roshek's had moved to KENNEDY MALL leaving the building empty except for several professional offices on the sixth through ninth floors. (26) Edward SHEPPLEY purchased the building in 1971 with the intention of converting the department store into office space with the lower three floors for department store space. (27) After eight years and expenditures estimated at $7 million, the new DUBUQUE BUILDING was ready for occupancy.

Three nineteenth-century rowhouses near Cable Car Square were converted into COVENTRY LTD. (28)

Owners of an additional eighteen buildings not scheduled for demolition were advised that their properties must meet city standards. (29) Paint was to be applied to the exterior of "shabby buildings" particularly along the alley side which are exposed to view from the Iowa Street Parking Ramp. Only signs which were flush to the wall would be permitted in the fifteen-block area. (30)

In an effort to draw customers back to the downtown, planners experimented with the American pedestrian mall. These were usually former streets now blocked from traffic and converted to wide sidewalks between stores. Approximately two hundred pedestrian malls were installed during this time period. (31) The previously mentioned Town Clock Plaza, Iowa's first open tree-lined pedestrian mall, was dedicated in 1971 by George Romney, then head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In the 1970s, the "Your Town Clock Committee" was organized to have the TOWN CLOCK moved from its current location at 825 Main Street to the new Town Clock Plaza. The city council approved. The $70,000 cost for the move was raised through donations raised over a 14 month period. (32)

The Durrant Architecture firm of Dubuque designed a pre-cast four-column pedestal that was then placed in the plaza. The actual tower was brought to the site on Feb 12, 1971, and bolted to the pedestal. The faces of the clock were placed at the new location on Feb 16, 1971. Afterwards the cupola was placed at the new site, which completed the move. After the reassembly was complete, the clock stood about 108 feet above the street, which was about two feet taller than at its previous location. (33) The move helped increased the visibility of the Town Clock which became the centerpiece at special events held at Town Clock Plaza. (34)

Looking back, it may have been the plan to demolish the Orpheum that spurred serious preservation activity in the downtown area. Helen MERCER guided the DUBUQUE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY in efforts to place significant buildings as the DUBUQUE COUNTY COURTHOUSE on the NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES. (35) Wayne Norman led efforts that resulted in the Orpheum being saved and converted into an important facet of the FIVE FLAGS CIVIC CENTER. He also convinced local investors into purchasing the RYAN HOUSE and developing CABLE CAR SQUARE, the area at the base of the FOURTH STREET ELEVATOR, into a model of San Francisco's famed Ghirardelli Square. He was also instrumental in converting a turn-of-the-century freight house near the ICE HARBOR into a riverboat museum. (36)

In 1973 NASH, Russell and Ruth NASH joined Richard and Liz Robertson, and Earl and Sue Steininger to establish the Fourth Street Artist Gallery in a restored pre-Civil War brick building in Cable Car Square. The gallery which offered local artists a place to exhibit their works to potential customers sold more than $100,000 worth of weaving, pottery, paintings, and prints in six years. To remain active, seventy percent of the sales were returned to the artist with the rest kept for overhead. (37)

The Nashes were encouraged by their first effort and in 1976 purchased a 1910 QUEEN ANNE ARCHITECTURE residence at 422 Loras Boulevard. Part of the space was rented as an apartment with the rest provided as office for the DUBUQUE ARTS COUNCIL, Friendship Force, West 11th Street Neighborhood Association, and the Dubuque Fine Arts Society. (38)

In 1977 the Dubuque City Council established a Historical Preservation Commission which had the responsibility of evaluating older buildings it considered worthy of preservation. (39)

See: SUSTAINABLE DUBUQUE and related entries.

---

Source:

1. Interview of Wayne Norman, August 1980

2. Sommer, Lawrence J. The Heritage of Dubuque: An Architectural View, East Dubuque, IL: Tel Graphics, 1975, p. 14

3. Ibid., p. 14-28

4. Fyten, David. "Stepped Up Historic Preservation Effort Urged," Telegraph Herald, Mar. 3, 1974, p. 18

5. Ibid.

6. Savage, Dan. Skipping Toward Gomorrah, New York: Dutton, a member of the Penguin Group, SDeptember 2002, Online: http://books.google.com/books?id=jjrS4RtW_LAC&pg=PT33&lpg=PT33&dq=dubuque+urban+renewal&source=bl&ots=5srtfj9DUd&sig=8eCQ-E_bMX-cCzgpRvNLFh7uM6Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jaY4VIDBDpWeyATiqoC4Cg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAjg8#v=onepage&q=dubuque%20urban%20renewal&f=false

7. Personal experience of the writer.

8. "Urban Renewal," Encyclopedia of Chicago. Online: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1295.html

9. Shively, Neil, "Council Must Okay Selection," Telegraph Herald, January 18, 1962, p. 1

10. Ibid.

11. Thompson, Dave. "Chamber Told to Keep Dubuque Style, Charm," "Telegraph Herald," August 20, 1965, p. 1

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. "Gent Wittenberg to Head Urban Renewal in Dubuque," Toledo Blade, August 30, 1965, p. 1. Online: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19650830&id=bD0xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZgEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2108,1333947

15. "Urban Renewal."

16. Bulkley, John. "Renewal Has Brought a Better Life for Some," Telegraph Herald, Dec. 9. 1969, p. 12.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

18. Ibid.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid., p. 13

22. Miller, Jim. "Council Hears Renewal Plans," Telegraph Herald, January 17, 1971, p. 18.

23. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

25. Nash, Ruth. "Dubuque: Building on a Proud Heritage," The Iowan, Summer 1979, p. 10

26. Meyer, Jeffrey L. "A Downtown Christmas Stable," Julien's Journal, December 2010, p. 65

27. Ibid., p. 66

28. Nash, p. 10

29. Miller, p. 18

29. Ibid.

31. Judge, Cole E. The Experiment of American Pedestrian Malls: Trends Analysis, Necessary Indicators for Success and Recommendations for Fresno’s Fulton Mall," Nov. 11, 2013, p. 2, Online: http://www.downtownfresno.org/_files/docs/americanpedmallexperiment.pdf

32. "Urban Renewal," Geocaching, http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC54QDA_town-clock?guid=06b67970-c538-4f60-b857-397569764c59

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Nash, Ruth. "Dubuque: Building on a Proud Heritage," The Iowan, Summer 1979, p. 6

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.