Portraits of Iowa (Volume II)

Iowa has many outstanding characteristics, but at its heart are its people and the communities they built. From people who turned the prairie into rich farmland, to those whose pioneer spirit launched businesses that became international successes, Iowans have, since the state's conception, continuously worked to make the world a better place. Like its people, the communities Iowans forged have seen both good times and bad, but in the end, the communities have become some of America's most favored places to live and raise a family. Places people are proud to call- "My hometown!" Communities like Carroll, where a fire in 1879 burned fifty-five businesses, ten homes and one of the communities leading churches. Yet, Carroll rebuilt and did so with new regulations on building materials. Or a quaint little community know across the country for tis beautiful town square. New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning architect critic Ada Louise Huxtable praised the Albia, Iowa town square in 1971. Huxtable told her readers across America that "In southern Iowa there is a town...which has discovered the truth: all change is not process." She was describing the preservation and restoration of Albia's town square, a project that took over five years to complete phase one (entirely with private dollars) and continues almost 35 years later. Or, Fairfield, a community situated in the southeastern part fo the state, where area residents brought many firsts to the state: the first Iowa State Fair; the first Carnegie Library, the first golf club and the first malleable iron foundry west of the Mississippi River. As readers turn the pages of Portraits of Iowa, Pride In Our Hometowns, Volume II they will discover dozens of little-know stories about the people of Iowa, some famous, some not so famous; and 19 outstanding communities they helped to create., ISBN13: 9780977306701 ISBN10: 0977306704 Material Type: unknown_binding