Creston’s blue grass palaces remembered

Creston’s legacy extends beyond it’s railroad as it’s bluegrass palaces once stood to boast about one of it’s most lucrative and plentiful exports of the late 19th century.

Jane Briley, President of the Historical Society board, gave a presentation Saturday on Creston’s bluegrass palaces at the Historical Society. Creston was once one of the largest producers of bluegrass in the world and a fair was held annually for three years to promote Creston and its businesses.

In 1888, southwest Iowans discovered land for growing bluegrass which rivaled Kentucky. Briley said the only place in the world that had more bluegrass in the world was Russia.

An association formed under the name “Blue Grass League of Southwest Iowa” the following year. On February 26, delegates from Union, Adair, Clarke and other counties met at the Union County Courthouse. W. J. Davenport of the C.B. & Q Railroad was made chairman of the bluegrass League.

“They invited the counties of southern Iowa, southwest Iowa particularly, to join their group and invited them to come to a meeting in Creston and their plan was to get a group together that would help promote the products of southern Iowa, which at that time, bluegrass was a cash crop,” Briley said

Farmers had grown at least one field of bluegrass during this period as its use in the production of ink dye made it highly valuable.

“But they had rules. The number of dollars you pay to be in the Blue Grass League was based on your population,” Briley said. “They had to pay so much money for every 500 people to be involved.”

The membership dues were used to make pamphlets that promoted southern Iowa products to Europe and Canada to build trade relations and increase revenue for farmers.

While the bluegrass League was publishing its meeting minutes in the local newspapers, Ed Brewster, the Creston Daily Advertiser’s publisher and editor in 1889, decided to write an editorial.

“Ed Brewster had heard all the things they were talking about doing and he decided, ‘You know, this would be really good,’” Briley said.

On Townline Street, Creston would host its annual District Agricultural Fair in August. Brewster decided this event would be a prime opportunity to have a bluegrass exhibition and hay palace. Brewster outlined his vision of the hay palace in the Daily Advertiser, to which the editor of the Creston Gazette responded on April 1, 1889.

“It has been suggested by the Advertiser that Creston should have a hay palace,” the editor said. “We believe it’s a good idea, there is nothing that would give our city a greater boom than a hay palace.”

The Gazette editor was looking to emulate the corn palace in Sioux City for Creston’s project, but changed his mind and decided Creston ought to have a bluegrass palace instead. Ed Brewster was displeased with the suggestion of a bluegrass palace, and the debate over a bluegrass or hay palace had carried out in community papers across southwest Iowa without the Blue Grass League’s involvement.

Creston fresco artist Louis Syberkrop presented his sketch of a bluegrass palace which encouraged the league to approve it.

“They called it a bluegrass palace, they didn’t call it a hay palace, which I think burned Ed Brewster a little bit,” Briley said.

The Blue Grass League elected local architect J.C. Woodruff to be contractor for the palace project. Once the palace was approved in June, the bluegrass League began promoting it as fast as they could build it. Some of the materials distributed such as souvenirs and envelopes depicting the bluegrass palace are still available to view at the historical society.

“So people all over southern Iowa, anybody from the bluegrass League, were doing anything they could to advertise this,” Briley said.

The palace was finished in August and ran from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7, 1889.

“It was constructed out of huge bails of pressed hay and straw,” Briley said, quoting an article during this period. “The walls were veneered were different sized bails giving the effect of masonry.”

Other parts of the palace were thatched with different grasses to bring a variety of color and was 100-feet square on every side and was 120-feet high at the old Union County fairgrounds. Participating counties could represent themselves uniquely within the palace.

“It had booths in it for every county that was involved. Eighteen counties were in the bluegrass palace League that year but only 12 of them decorated a booth for their county,” Briley said. “The ladies were asked to form what they called the Ladies’ bluegrass League and that’s who was in charge of decorating. They didn’t let the men to do it, I guess the men can design it and build it, but they didn’t want the men to decorate the booths.”

Each of the booths displayed something distinct about the communities they were representing.

“Every room was different,” Briley said. “Because all the booths had things that people actually produced in their county.”

Union County displayed a statue of the Greek goddess Ceres made of corn and tillage on a pedestal of hay and strawberries. Ceres is the goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. Mills County displayed grasses, seeds, vegetable and woods, Adair had a horse covered in bluegrass and a sheep covered in bright grains, among others.

“In the exhibition, they had horses, cattle, hogs and sheep on exhibit and they were all judged as well just like we do at our county fairs,” Briley said. “All the field and garden crops were exhibited and also judged, they were judged in prizes and premiums.”

Each day the bluegrass palace stood, there would be events hosted that went beyond agriculture.

“They did an old settlers’ day, they had a baby show, they had a wedding at the bluegrass palace,” Briley said. She could not find records of who was married at the bluegrass palace.

They also had each day to celebrate at least one county, however, since there were 18 in the League, some were not represented or there were two counties celebrated on the same day. Sundays were reserved for church activities. The amphitheaters were used for music, poetry recitations and reenactments daily. There were also horse races on a half-mile track.

“What they were having was trotting and running daily and they’d all be different ages of horses, like they’d have old horses versus young horses.”

Brewster wrote an editorial on May 3, 1889, stating that the hay used in the palace would be decorated with a placard to advertise Creston to farmers nationwide.

“His idea was take those big bails, and when you sell them at the end of the bluegrass palace, put this on it and then send it to Indiana, Oklahoma, wherever, so they can see that you can buy hay from us,” Briley said.

Afton was the county seat of in 1889 and was in a dispute with Creston over the courthouse and felt the bluegrass palace was a maneuver by Creston to win this dispute. As a result, Afton would not publish anything about the bluegrass palace besides a lengthy recap after it was over.

“Besides Brewster printing articles about the hay palace versus the bluegrass palace, he was also writing courthouse editorials. So was Afton,” Briley said. “So I go through stuff, you don’t find a single thing about the bluegrass palace.”

The bluegrass palace fair was held in 1890 and again in 1891. The palace was discontinued without a definite explanation, but Briley theorized interest in it was below the priorities of Creston’s business community as they were heavily involved in the Chicago World’s Fair.

“John Gibson was a banker. His future son-in-law was named Frank Phillips,” Briley said. “Frank Phillips was sent on a trip to the east coast by John Gibson to help raise money to build a building at the Chicago World’s Fair,” Briley said. “Now if that was happening here in Creston, how many other businessmen in Creston were helping build buildings at the Chicago World’s Fair? So that makes me think they didn’t have time for another bluegrass palace, they were trying to put together the Chicago World’s Fair.”