ELBERT’S BACKSTORIES
The many lives of one building
A sketch of the Iowa Exposition Building as it looked when it opened in ...
Playing the long game with downtown development
Ideas that fizzled at first eventually produced the Pappajohn Sculpture Park, the Principal Riverwalk ...
Eleanor Roosevelt’s busy trip to Des Moines
The first lady had an ambitious itinerary during her 13-hour visit.
Street cred: How Des Moines named its roads
Street names reflect who we are, or at least who we think we are.
Before the gold dome, a ‘pile of bricks’
The original Brick Capitol, left, housed the Iowa Legislature from 1858 to 1884. This ...
Two storylines, one World Food Prize
Before the World Food Prize Foundation moved into the former public library (left), plans ...
Grant’s speech in Des Moines sparked a debate
President Ulysses S. Grant and the Des Moines Public School at Ninth and Mulberry ...
Des Moines Art Center’s enigmatic benefactor
The Krause Gateway Center hosts the Des Moines Art Center’s annual fundraising event on ...
Back then, a few ‘cars of the future’ were really cool
Aviation engineer William Stout used aircraft technology to design his “car of the future,” ...
Remember Seniom Sed? It’s older than you think.
On Monday evening, Sept. 13, 1897, President William McKinley pushed “an electronic button at ...
