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Dacia Seger
Mr. Jeremy Taylor
College Composition II 106
22 February 2013
Keep it Standing: Historical Preservation is an Ongoing Issue
When told the word “history,” most people will immediately think of sitting in a
classroom listening to a boring professor droning on about the middle ages or ancient Greece. In
reality, however, history is so much more than classroom lectures or an 800 page textbook.
History can be found woven throughout every town, big or small, in a variety of ways. One
major way that history remains a part of a town or city is through the historical preservation of
buildings. Historical preservation is an issue that every street, neighborhood, or city is faced
with. Taking part in the preservation of historical areas is something that benefits not only the
areas being restored, but also the citizens of the surrounding areas.
When it comes to historic preservation, Sioux City, Iowa, provides a perfect example.
Downtown Sioux City is filled with older buildings, but one street in particular holds special
historical value in its buildings—Fourth Street. Fourth Street is a section of Sioux City that has
been through a roller coaster of a history, and its buildings live on today to tell the tale. Even the
buildings’ structures are enough to tell part of the area’s history, providing information as to how
long they have been standing over the cobblestones of Fourth Street. According to a brochure
titled “Walking Tour of Historic Fourth Street,” many of the buildings lining Fourth Street are of
“Richardsonian Romanesque” architectural style, which was seen often in the late 1890s. Some
of the characteristics of this style are “heavy, rough-cut stone walls, round arches, squat columns,
and deeply recessed windows.”
Fourth Street has not always had the positive “historic” connotation that it does today,
however. Before it was “historic,” Fourth Street was known as “Lower” Fourth. It is important,
however, to know exactly how much of Fourth Street is included in the “Historic” and “Lower”
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section. The Walking Tour brochure states that “‘Historic’ or ‘Lower’ Fourth Street refers to the
two city blocks between Virginia and Iowa Streets in downtown Sioux City that contain fifteen
structures dating from 1889 to 1915” (2). These two city blocks have lived a colorful hundred
and fifty years and their history is an interesting story that should be heard by all.
Back in the late 1800s and up until prohibition in the 1920s, “Lower” Fourth was a
booming, thriving area of Sioux City. “The city’s main business avenue since the 1870s, Fourth
Street was a natural target for…intensive real estate development” (Walking Tour of Historic 2).
Jerry White, a writer for the Sioux City Journal in the 1950s, includes in his article about Fourth
Street that it was thanks to two merchants that Fourth Street received its glamorized image in the
late 1800s. He informs that one was a man named T.S. Martin who opened a dry goods store in
1880 and the other was a young Russian immigrant named Ben Davidson, who also started a dry
goods store. Between 1870 and 1890, buildings popped up along Fourth Street at a rapid speed.
The last three years were especially busy with building construction. According to the Walking
Tour, “between 1888 and 1890, five new buildings were constructed by local interests, while
three buildings were financed by a Massachusetts firm in 1890” (2). The buildings being
constructed during this time were used for many different things, ranging from drugstores to
theaters. White writes that “they built the Peavy Grand Theater in 1888 at Fourth and Jones
streets. Many Great stage stars spoke their famous lines there and many crowds watched them
perform.” From the way White writes this line, it’s easy to see how fondly people saw Fourth
Street at one point in time. Unfortunately, its fond reputation did not last to the twentieth century.
While the 1920s and prohibition was a big factor to Fourth Street’s decline, the start of its
decline began before the turn of the century. In White’s article, he writes that Fourth Street’s
reputation was severely marred by the murder of Methodist minister Reverend George Haddock
in 1886. White adds that, although he was a popular man around town, he was hated by the
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tavern keepers in town for being an anti-saloon leader. It didn’t take the saloon and tavern
keepers long to formulate their distaste for Haddock. According to Lynn Zersching, a writer for
the Sioux City Journal, he moved to Sioux City in 1885 and began helping with investigations of
saloons that were supposedly violating Iowa’s ban on liquor. One night, as he was making his
way down Fourth Street, a group of angry bar-goers shot and killed him. The result was
devastating for Fourth Street. Zersching says that after Haddock’s death, many saloons and
gambling houses closed up shop in downtown Sioux City for five years, moving across the river
to open instead in what would eventually be South Sioux City.
The next few decades did nothing to brighten Fourth Street’s reputation. In his article
“Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure,” Mark Thornton includes that throughout the 19th and 20th
centuries, the serious crime rates in America had been declining. He adds that the prohibition
movement, though unintentionally, reversed that trend. Not only were crime rates rising during
prohibition years, but shady, backdoor deals as well as manipulated officials were seen all over.
Thornton writes that “everyone from major politicians to the cop on the beat took bribes from
bootleggers, moonshiners, crime bosses, and owners of speakeasies” (“Alcohol Prohibition Was
a Failure”). This trend was seen all over the country, so it only makes sense that Fourth Street
picked up the bad habits that ran rampant during that time. In a 1998 article titled “Ho
Shopping,” writer Bill Zahren states that “Lower Fourth passed for Sioux City’s red-light, vice
district back then.” In Zerschling’s article, she writes, “Prostitution and gambling dens flourished
on ‘Lower Fourth’…where the red-light district was dubbed ‘The Sudan’” (“Sioux City’s
Prohibition Past Fascinates Historians”). It was no secret that Fourth Street was a dingy area of
Sioux City with a reputation to match. One Sioux City native, journalist and retired news anchor
George Linblade, recalled how Fourth Street used to be in a personal interview. “As kids, we
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were never allowed to venture down Fourth Street alone,” recalls Linblade, “it was home to too
much violence and corruption.”
Fourth Street’s ugly reputation lasted for decades into the 20th century. Bill Rodawig, a
part of Aalfs’ Manufacturing, recalls that by the 1980s, “there was just nothing but bars and
drunks down this whole street” (qtd.in Bristow). Bars and the drunks that spent their time in
them were not the only issues Fourth Street faced in the 1980s, though. In David Bristow’s
article “Miracle on Lower Fourth Street,” Rodawig also stated that “nobody was taking care of
their buildings. Nobody was putting any money into it because there wasn’t any future in it.” The
buildings themselves were also in danger as the reputation of Fourth Street continued its ugly
streak into the 1980s.
Finally, after decades of being pegged as a horrible area of Sioux City, Fourth Street’s
future began to brighten. As Bristow puts it in his article, “The vision of an historic district
developed slowly,” but the vision did develop. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Fourth Street
received some much-needed attention and restoration. In Bristow’s article, he tells the story of
how “Lower” Fourth began to transform into “Historic” Fourth, slowly but surely. Bill Rodawig
found an old envelope containing pictures of the Aalfs’ building from before it had been bricked
over. Instead of bricks, the front of the building had “arched windows and narrow iron columns.”
He found out those features were still there behind the bricks. The company had contemplated
moving but instead decided to restore the building and stay put (Bristow). This was a big
commitment for the Aalfs Manufacturing crew, a commitment that could have easily been tossed
aside if they’d decided to move to a new location instead. However, according to the Walking
Tour brochure, the Aalfs Manufacturing Company’s restoration project of 1984 got the ball
rolling on Fourth Street’s revitalization. It was around this time that people started to realize the
area’s potential again. After the Aalfs building restoration, more and more people began to see
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the potential of Fourth Street and what the area could again be to the citizens of Sioux City.
Eventually, the restoration movement became momentous enough to get the city’s attention.
“…The city government got involved once it became apparent that businesses could indeed
thrive on Lower Fourth” (Bristow). The city government took part in the project, writing up rules
and regulations for Fourth Street’s restoration that had to be followed. One such regulation was
“…that building restorations must be in keeping with the 1890s feel of the area” (Bristow). The
city realized the importance of the area, the history it provided for Sioux City citizens, and did
what it could to keep that history alive during Fourth Street’s restoration. Once Fourth Street was
freshly renovated, its reputation increased quickly.
In 1995, the two city blocks on Fourth Street between Virginia and Iowa streets
were placed on the National Register of Historic Places…Since then, the majority
of the buildings in the district have undergone extensive renovation. Now known
as the Fourth Street Historic District, the area is one of Sioux City’s most popular
entertainment spots featuring a variety of restaurants, pubs, nightclubs and
specialty shops. (Walking Tour of Historic)
After the restoration of Fourth Street finished, more and more people in and around Sioux City
began spending their time downtown, helping to greatly enhance its reputation back to what it
was in the 1800s.
“Historic” Fourth Street is now a popular, well-liked area of town. As Bristow puts it,
“Today, crowds of Sioux Citians can be found dining in the restaurants and browsing in the
shops of Historic Fourth Street.” Fourth Street is a restaurant and entertainment-riddled stretch of
Sioux City. Most of the buildings that used to sit empty when Fourth Street was an avoided area
of town are now alive and doing well. “Up and down Fourth Street, shops have sprung up in
buildings that used to sit empty” (Bristow). From the amount of activity seen up and down
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Fourth Street today, it is easy to see how much the restoration of the area has helped its
reputation and benefitted the now-historic area. However, the revitalization of Fourth Street has
not only benefitted the area, but also the citizens of the town. No longer are children told to stay
away from that section of downtown. In an article written in 1998 for the 4th Street Review by
Bill Zahren, he refers to Fourth Street as “a place to chill out with our architectural-historyloving hep-cat friends.” As more and more people spend time on Fourth Street, they cannot help
but be surrounded by the vast history that lives on in the area and in the structures on Fourth
Street. Restoring Fourth Street has opened people’s eyes to the history of Sioux City and of
Fourth Street in particular. While it may have been easier for building owners to move on and let
their structures rot back when Fourth Street had a bad reputation and never saw any traffic, the
decision to buckle down and restore Fourth Street to its former glory has greatly benefitted the
area and the citizens of Sioux City.
Fourth Street is not the only place that is influenced by historical preservation. The
preservation of historical sites has been around in the United States for hundreds of years.
According to Richard Worsnop, writer of an article titled “Historic Preservation,” “The first
recorded preservation action was the 1816 purchase by the city of Philadelphia of Independence
Hall—site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence—from the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.” Without the purchase and the preservation of this historical site, an important
piece of the country’s history would be rotting away if not long gone. Though the act of
preserving historic sites has been going on since the early 1800s, it was not until nearly a decade
later that the government felt the need to get involved in the situation. “During the 1930s, the
Depression-era government began to take an active role in preservation. In the Historic Sites Act
of 1935, Congress declared it ‘a national policy to preserve for public use historic sites,
buildings, and objects of national significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the
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United States’” (Worsnop). As the government began to get involved, it was apparent to them
that the preservation of historic sites benefitted the citizens of the country. They also knew that
the issue of historic preservation would touch every corner of the nation and could not be ignored
anywhere. Worsnop also says that around the 1930s, it became apparent to people that buildings
with memorable architectural style should also be preserved, not just sites and buildings
“commemorative in nature.” It was around this time that people were beginning to understand
the importance of older, historical buildings and sites instead of always pushing for newer, more
modern styles. It was becoming apparent that keeping historic sites and buildings standing and
well-preserved would teach people of the country’s past and help them grow from the mistakes
of generations past.
As knowledge about historic preservation has continued to grow in the past decades and
centuries, laws concerning the preservation of historical sites are being passed in all parts of the
country. On their website, the National Trust for Historic Preservation states that in 1966, the
National Historic Preservation Act was passed, establishing a program designed to protect
historical landmarks, buildings, and neighborhoods and encourage the protection of these types
of areas. Since then, historic preservation and its benefits have been governmentally protected
and something that more and more people are learning about.
There are measures being taken to make historical preservation more prevalent in the
United States. Some cities have even passed laws in order to make them seem like historic cities.
Santa Fe and Santa Barbara are two examples. According to Arthur Cotton Moore in his book
The Powers of Preservation, the two cities have “outlawed typical American-looking buildings
and mandated that all future structures have a specific architectural style.” Though it may not
being strictly conventional, passing a law that requires new buildings to have historical
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architectural style plainly shows how important the city governments of Santa Fe and Santa
Barbara see historic architecture to be.
Historical preservation and restoration projects are going on all over the United States.
Even one of the most well-known buildings in the country has dealt with the possibility of being
demolished and was spared by the powers of historic preservation. In the Supreme Court case of
“Penn Central Transportation Co. v City of New York” in 1978, the Court saw the restoration
and preservation of Grand Central Station when it was deemed a historically relevant site.
Without the power that historic preservation has gained over the years, such a staple building as
Grand Central Station might no longer be standing. Another example of historic preservation
took place in 1993. That year, Walt Disney Co. announced they would be building a history
theme park in Virginia. It would be called Disney’s America and, to its supporters at least, was
going to be a “popularizer of the nation’s history” (Worsnop). Though the theme park never
came to be, the idea that historic preservation was going to filter down to the youth of the
country in the form of a theme park puts into perspective how influential the preservation of
historic sites had become by the early 1990s.
One example of historic preservation and its story, aside from Historic Fourth Street, hits
home to the citizens of Sioux City. A significant piece of history close to Sioux City’s heart is
the Corn Room Mural by Grant Wood that was lost for nearly five decades. As an article on the
Sioux City Art Museum’s website says, “The Corn Room was created by Grand Wood in 1927,
then lost for decades under paint and old wallpaper, only to be rediscovered in 1979.” Though
the mural is not a building of historical importance, it is a piece of history that was lost for many
years thanks to someone’s carelessness and disregard to its historical value. Grant Wood is the
artist who created the “American Gothic” painting, and was asked to paint a mural of corn fields
in multiple different hotels around the Sioux City area. Though Wood’s technique is still visible
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in the mural today, the clarity of the mural was severely damaged when it was painted and
wallpapered over in the 1950s (“The Corn Room”). The near-loss of this greatly historical piece
of art, saved only by the powers of preservation and restoration, is an example of how easily
historical artifacts can be lost in such a modern society. Without historic preservation and
restoration, many historic pieces of art and buildings could be gone in today’s generation, and
with them, the story and historical lesson they have to teach.
Historical preservation is so much more than just saving old buildings. Preserving
historical sites shows current generations how the area used to be and teaches them about the
architecture of ages passed. While preserving historic buildings and areas should be considered
more often, it need not be confused with the opportunity to slap tacky signs and decorations onto
a once-beautiful historic building and still call it “preserved.” In The Powers of Preservation,
Moore comments that many historical buildings have “been repeatedly physically attacked by
waves of savage remodeling and let-her-rip signage in an ever-increasing attempt to capture
sales.” It also teaches current generations about the culture and lifestyles of past generations and
past historical figures. As the National Trust for Historic Preservation states, “We want future
generations to be able to experience and discover their own connections to these places as well.”
It’s important for current generations to learn what past generations were like and to learn from
their mistakes. In his interview, George Linblade mused that without the history of the past being
preserved in Historic Fourth Street, nothing would be learned and people would be cursed to
make the same mistakes as their ancestors.
The preservation and restoration of historical sites also offers some variety in what is
becoming an increasingly modern culture. Some people ask what the point of preserving historic
buildings and areas is. Moore puts the answer to this question on the table in a single sentence.
He says preservation provides “an architecturally different environment which could…provide
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some appeal to the vacation part of our lives.” The Supreme Court case about Grand Central
Station also provides a simple response to such a question: “…structures with special historic,
cultural, or architectural significance enhance the quality of life for all.” The preservation and
restoration of historical sites and areas provides so much history and variety to the lives of
people all over the country, benefitting them the way that modern, historically-lacking buildings
can not.
Every nook and cranny of every city is faced with the option to preserve sites of historical
value. Sioux City’s Fourth Street is one example of an area that was once highly avoided by
people and has undergone a massive change to become a highly populated area. However, Sioux
City’s Fourth Street is not the only example of historic preservation. Preservation and restoration
projects are springing up all over the country. The preservation of all these sites and areas
provides so many benefits to the people and the culture of the area. Laws and other efforts are
working to make historic preservation more mandatory and more prevalent in the United States,
and the preservation of historical sites will continue to tie in the country’s past with its everurbanizing future. As twentieth century poet T.S. Eliot writes, “Time present and time past are
both perhaps in time future, and time future contained in time past” (qtd. in Moore).
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Works Cited
Bristow, David L. "The Miracle on Lower Fourth Street." 4th Street Review 1998: 1-4. Print.
"The Corn Room." Sioux City Art Center. Sioux City Art Center, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2013.
Linblade, George. Personal interview. 15 Jan. 2013.
Moore, Aurthur Cotton. The Powers of Preservation. Ed. Wendy Lochner. New York City:
McGraw, 1998. Print.
"Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York (1978)." Issues: Understanding
Controversy and Society.ABC-CLIO, 2013. Web. 27 Jan. 2013.
"Save Historic Places." National Trust for Historic Preservation. National Trust for Historic
Preservation, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://www.preservationnation.org/>.
Thornton, Mark. "Alcohol Prohibition Was a Failure." Cato. N.p., 17 July 1991. Web. 27 Jan.
2013. <http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-157.html>.
Walking Tour of Historic Fourth Street. Sioux City: Sioux City Public Museum, 2008. Print.
White, Jerry. "Famous Streets in America." Sioux City Journal [Sioux City] 7 Dec. 1952: 1-3.
Print.
Worsnop, Richard L. "Historic Preservation." CQ Researcher 7 Oct. 1994: 865-88. Web. 29 Jan.
2013.
Zahren, Bill. "Ho Shopping." 4th Street Review June 1998: 1. Print.
Zerschling, Lynn. "Sioux City's Prohibition Past Fascinates Historians." Sioux City Journal
[Sioux City] 2 Oct. 2011: n. pag. Print.