A monument to Creston’s past and present

“The Iowana stands as a monument to the gentlemen who have faith in Creston and her future,” stated a Creston newspaper on Aug. 11, 1920, a day before the hotel officially opened.

For years, The Iowana Hotel served a shining icon of what Creston had become, a glamorous and busy home to the wealthy passing through on the railroad. More than 100 years later, the impressive building is serving a different, yet equally important, set of people in the community.

Since late 2011, the Iowana has been home to 24 apartments over six floors. People age 62 or older or disabled individuals of any age are eligible to rent the apartments. Residents enjoy a central location with modern amenities in a historic building. However, it was a long path to get here.

In the late 1910s, a group of local businessmen founded the Hotel Investment Company in order to bring a grand new hotel to Creston. Rail business continued to boom and the town wanted to provide somewhere to stay that was nicer than the facilities currently offered.

“They wanted a large enough hotel that they could have conferences come in and the hotels that they had weren’t upscale,” Creston Historic Preservation Commission Chairman Jane Briley said. “They were really trying to compete with Des Moines and those places, and since they had the railroad coming through, they had found that a lot of the people on the railroad would come and stay there. It was a community project to get that hotel in here.”

To raise funds for the new hotel, the Hotel Investment Company sold stocks to the community. Briley said 288 businesses and citizens had bought stocks for this project by 1919. H.L. Stevens & Company, an architectural firm based out of Chicago, was hired to design and build the new hotel.

In February 1920, the Creston Advertiser-Gazette shared multiple stories updating the community on the hotel’s progress. On Feb. 19, they reported the plumbing was completed and plaster work would begin soon.

“Mr. Peterson, of Minneapolis, who has the contract for the plaster work states that all the ornamental work will be cast on the job and not shipped into the city as is believed by a number of people,” the paper reported. “The elevator and machinery and material is on the ground and soon the concrete tower in the center of the building will be torn down to make room for the elevator men.”

While work was still being done, various businesses began leasing space from the hotel. The Feb. 12 edition of the newspaper names numerous local firms changing or adding locations.

“Two local business firms in this city were the first to close contracts for rooms in the new hotel building. The big corner room will be a Rexall drug store and be under the management of M. J. Brennan, proprietor of the Rexall store on Adams Street,” the paper said. “For rooms two and three fronting on Maple Street a new firm, styled, Tallman and Larson, Clothiers, have contracted.”

Three other rooms were still available to lease, for which the paper said there were a number of applicants. George Cromley took up one of the rooms for his a place called the “Coffee Room.” The newspapers did not mention what the other two businesses were upon opening.

A grand opening for the hotel was scheduled for Aug. 12, a date that was stuck to despite delays in construction.

“Regardless of the fact that many people maintain that ‘it can’t be done,’ the Iowana Hotel will open its doors to the people of Creston and the unveiling public on Thursday, August 12, as has been announced,” the Creston Advertiser-Gazette said. “Work on the lobby, the dining room and the ball room is moving along swiftly and there is absolutely no chance for the opening to be postponed.”

The opening itself was a full night, including a dinner, dance, entertainers and speakers. However, Crestonians were assured the event wasn’t formal, “no spike-tailed coats and gates ajar collars. Just your business suit,” the paper assured.

Tickets to attend cost $10, equal to more than $150 today. Half of the money went to the Hotel Investment Company and half to hotel management. The Creston Advertiser-Gazette said about 200 guests were present at the event.

A little over a month later, the paper announced the Iowana Hotel would be entertaining Vice President Thomas R. Marshall. This was one of only two stops the vice president made in Iowa.

While a vice president might be one of the most important guests the hotel ever housed, it was far from the only. Briley said outside regular guests, the hotel also held conventions, club meetings, proms, dances, family gatherings, weddings and birthdays in the hotel’s ballroom.

The hotel had 117 guest rooms spread across seven stories, the tallest building in Creston. While travelers today might find the rooms lacking, in the 1920s, the Iowana’s rooms were the nicest in town. Of the 117 rooms, 45 had private baths and another 40 had a sink. Most rooms consisted simply of a bed and a dresser, somewhere to stay the night but nothing more.

Additionally, the hotel had five sample rooms, in which businessmen could both stay and sell their wares.

“There were over five of those and they had a private bath,” Briley said. “Those were for businessmen coming to town wanting to show their products for sale.”

In December 1920, the Creston Advertiser-Gazette spoke with H. K Smithers, described as a representative of one of the largest machinery manufacturers in the United States. Smithers took a tour of Creston between trains when traveling to Chicago.

“I have visited many towns during the past year and Creston seems to me to be about as progressive a town as I have had the pleasure of being in during that time,” Smithers said. “They tell me that your hotel is new and that it was made possible by local capital entirely. That alone would make the town stand out among hundreds of others as a leader.”

Throughout the years, there were a variety of stores and amenities available to guests. The Coffee Room become popular for both travelers and residents of Creston, with various meals being served for lunch and afternoon tea available as well. Other items included a gentlemen’s club in the basement called The Top Hat, a jewelry shop, a millinery, a barber shop and full-time cooks, maids and bellhops.

Though the businesses attached to the Iowana Hotel changed over the years, the hotel itself stayed strong for a number of decades. Cars overtook the train in popularity, and travelers began to prefer the motels along the highway. In order to adapt, the hotel started to offer longer term rentals.

“In 1960, they had advertisements in the paper for a bedroom/living room combination with a bath, newly furnished, $50 per month. During that period of time, they might have opened up two rooms and made them an apartment, so there might have been a door made during that time to make an actual apartment,” Briley said. “They also had sleeping rooms that were $6 per week and up. It was an efficiency apartment.”

However, as travel continued to change, the Iowana Hotel had issues staying full. The Hotel Investment Company sold the hotel at auction in 1971. Edith Thompson ran the hotel until 1978 when her son Theodore Thompson took over.

The hotel continued to go through owners. William Porter owned the hotel from 1986 to 1989. Paul Ki bought the building with the plan to turn it into a business college. This never came to fruition, and the building was sold to Nui Wong in 1996. However, the hotel was eventually abandoned, falling into deep disrepair.

“Sometimes the doors would be broken open. People would break in,” Briley said. “There was a check-in desk and it had a marble top, and then there were marble steps going up to the mezzanine. From what I understand, somebody went in with some kind of a big, heavy hammer and broke the marble. It was just a mess because people would go in and vandalize it. The furniture in the rooms was broken up.”

The city of Creston obtained ownership of the Iowana building in 2008, and the total cost of renovation was an estimated $5.4 million.

MetroPlains LLC, the Iowana restoration developer, secured a $1 million Section 515 loan from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development, historic tax credits and $4.4 million in low-income housing tax credits from Iowa Finance Authority (IFA).

After restoration was completed in 2011, the building consisted of 24 apartments: four units on the second through sixth floors, with an additional two units on both the first floor and the mezzanine level.

The building soon had each apartment rented out and continues to be full of residents today. Each apartment is equipped with a washer and dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator, stove, microwave, central air-condition, custom blinds, carpeting and vinyl flooring.

Other features included a computer center, a library and craft room, an exercise area and an entertainment space.

Being on the National Register of Historic Places, the Iowana has kept much of it’s original charm. Old hotel room doors can still be seen when walking through the halls, though they’ve been sealed shut. The library features letters from the previous sign from the top of the building, and a number of telephone booths can still be found in the lobby. Not only are residents surrounded by history, but they enjoy the same proximity to uptown Creston that those on the railroad once enjoyed.

“A lot of the tenants here love the fact that it’s a secure building and it’s close to the amenities downtown,” Iowana manager Karen Walters said. “Fareway we have right around the corner, the library is just north of us here and several other businesses around town.”

While the building has no vacancies at the moment, those interested can find contact information on the door of the building, as well as applications in the lobby.

While serving a different purpose that when it first opened in 1920, the Iowana continues to be an icon of uptown Creston and a reminder of the city’s impressive history.