Public Space One bought a mansion. To be more specific, PS1 is expanding into the Close House, a historic building on the well-trekked corner of South Gilbert and Bowery streets in downtown Iowa City. The purchase marks a bold new chapter for the arts nonprofit, which spent the better part of the last decade in […]
Iowa City history
Posted inCommunity/News
The Hall Mall is dead, long live the Hall Mall!
“I came up with the Hall Mall name,” Kirk Stephan said through chuckles as he recalled opening what would become Iowa City’s original incubator of small businesses in the early 1970s. “I wanted to have a longer one, but it turned out that advertisers charged more money the more letters you had!” More than a […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The Highlander, Iowa City’s strange, star-studded supper club, is now a historic hotel
I was a little nervous during my first meeting as a member of Iowa City’s Historic Preservation Commission a few years ago. After we voted to adjourn, I breathed a sigh of relief — I hadn’t made a motion at the wrong time and didn’t seem to screw anything up. And then a former commissioner […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Bike Library focuses summer rides on racial justice, ‘the power of the bicycle’
In early July 2021, the Iowa City Bike Library is releasing the first in a series of four bike rides touring the Iowa City area intended to create awareness of calls to action in the community. The Raise It Up Rides are audio-guided routes visiting points of interest relating to racial inequities, identifying systems of […]
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Coast Guard to honor Hawkeye football great Emlen Tunnell for his bravery in WWII
Emlen Tunnell made history on the football field — first as a Hawkeye, then in the NFL — and continued do so after his playing days ended in 1961. In 1965, he became the first Black assistant coach in the NFL, and in 1967, Tunnell was the first Black player inducted into Pro Football Hall […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The ‘demure white supremacy of the Midwest’
Beneath a veneer of “niceness,” the Midwest is among the very worst places to live in the United States if you’re a person of color. That’s what historian and University of Iowa history professor Colin Gordon discovered while completing a report for the Iowa Policy Project titled “Race in the Heartland: Equity, Opportunity, and Public […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: KRUI 89.7 FM
KRUI 89.7 FM was voted Best Radio Station in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. Things are constantly changing in Iowa City as students move in and move on and familiar parts of the landscape disappear, replaced by new apartment buildings. Sometimes nothing seems permanent except the flocked wallpaper at George’s. But at […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Two grassroots groups are fighting against the odds to save The Mill, Iowa City’s ‘cultural crossroads’
If three months into Iowa’s COVID-19 pandemic there were some locals who still hoped life might return to normal someday, the announcement that The Mill restaurant and music venue was being sold off was likely a wake-up call. The Mill, 120 E Burlington St, was a stomping ground for generations of townies and a destination […]
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Iowa City’s first LGBTQ safe space
On May 1, 2009, a charter bus rolled into downtown Iowa City, packed with lesbian and gay couples from Missouri (and a rabbi or two). A few weeks earlier, Iowa had become the first state in the Midwest to recognize same-sex marriage. The busload of couples had come to the Hawkeye State to get hitched. […]
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The Bowery Street Grocery Store and Iowa City’s omitted history of segregation
In 2014, a small building on the block between South Johnson and South Van Buren streets in Iowa City was added to the National Register for Historic Places. Its inclusion was well-warranted; it had served as a small grocery store for nearly a century, beginning in the late 1800s. The store at 518 E Bowery […]
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Your Village: The story of Emma Harvat, Iowa City’s history-making mayor
Have a question about what’s going on in your community? Ask Little Village. Submit your questions through the Your Village feature on our homepage, or email us at editor@littlevillagemag.com. I’d like to know more about Emma Harvat, the first woman mayor of Iowa City. —Rebecca, Iowa City Her name does live on in Iowa City […]
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Two houses represent a forgotten period of segregation in Iowa City, University of Iowa history
The houses at 942 Iowa Ave and 914 S Dubuque St in Iowa City may seem nondescript — just another couple of old, off-campus rental properties for college students — save for the rust-brown metal signs out front. These signs, funded by a grant from the National Park Service, detail the background of the Iowa Federation Home and Tate Arms house, which have had quiet but important roles in the history of Iowa City and the University of Iowa.
