Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2016 by Anthony Capps
All rights reserved
Front cover, top: mural by Ames Collaborative Art, authors collection; bottom: Ames
Historical Society.
First published 2016
e-book edition 2016
ISBN 978.1.62585.517.6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016944036
print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.990.3
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A great foundation for this book was established in William Pages 2007 survey titled Fourth Ward: Ames, Iowa. Although many of the first Campustown stories and personalities are lost to history because they werent recorded, the other foundation for the early years explored in this book is the archive of the Iowa State Daily. While some people might not think much of the newspaper because its student-runI spent many hours in the newsroom during my college yearsthe Daily is a quintessential source in the history of West Ames and Campustown because in the early years, it was the lone voice for local residents. While the Ames Daily Tribune and Ames Evening Times contain a wealth of information, West Ames received little attention in the early twentieth century. In its pages, the Daily also has advertisements, many of which are the only way we know long-ago businesses once existed.
A big thank-you also goes to Alex Fejfar and the Ames Historical Society for putting up with me in my many months of research, as well as Becky Jordan and the staff at Special Collections and University Archives at the University Library. Thank you also to the countless people who took the time to sit down and talk to me about their knowledge of Campustown or simply to recall their personal history with the neighborhood and what it has meant to them, including Lynn Lloyd, Dan Rice, Tom Emmerson, Kathy Svec, Dean Hunziker, Steve and Sherry Erb, John Huber, Ken Dunker, George McJimsey, Fern Kupfer and many, many more. And thank you to Mark Witherspoon and my parents for reading some of the early drafts.
And for the photos, a thank-you to the Campustown churches that opened their archives of histories and pictures, as well as Logan Gaedke and Julie Erickson for their help making some of the photography here possible.
INTRODUCTION
A few years ago, while working at the Ames Tribune, I was interviewing someone who said he was going to West Ames later in the day. I figured he was referring to the commercial district around West Hy-Vee, the old Ontario neighborhood at North Dakota Avenue and Ontario Street, or somewhere out west on Mortensen Road. I was wrong; the person was referencing Campustown. Six years of living in Ames, and this was the first time Id heard Campustown referred to as West Ames. When people think of West Ames today, images of those places I deemed as West Ames are a fair reaction. Theyre near the citys western limits and are hubs for the surrounding neighborhoods. However, for most of the twentieth century, the downtown and centerpiece of West Ames was Campustown. Located just south of the Iowa State University campus, Campustown has been visited by hundreds of thousandsprobably even millionsof college students, community residents and visitors.
Unlike the city of Ames and most Iowa towns in the late nineteenth century, the railroad didnt spur the creation of Campustown. Instead, it was the growth of Iowa State University, which remains the bedrock for Campustowns existence. Annexed by Ames in 1893 when off-campus lands were mostly barren, Campustown is a rarity in city development. The neighborhood has its earliest roots in the early 1900s, but thats more than thirty years after Iowa State welcomed its first class of students. A college community where the college came first and the surrounding community later is an uncommon story. Other notable universities that began in isolation have similar storiesTexas A&M University, University of MarylandCollege Park and Michigan State University, for examplebut Campustown is special. It never incorporated as a separate townthough that could have happened during a secession movement in 1916since Ames annexed it before any great expansion. This college community grew as part of a town nearly two miles away, crafting itself a separate city within a city.
DEFINING THE AREA
In this book, Campustown is defined as the land between South Sheldon and Ash Avenues on the west and east and Lincoln Way and Knapp Street on the north and south. Nevertheless, the surrounding neighborhoods will be mentioned in this book because so much of Campustowns history is deeply tied to them and, of course, Iowa State University. Several buildings and events bordering CampustownWelch and Crawford Schools, the Iowa State University Memorial Union, the 1988 VEISHEA riotwill be discussed because of the importance they played in Campustown life. Campustown wasnt named until 1922, but Ill always refer to the area as Campustown; other nicknames will be explored, too.
Because the West Gate centerthat small commercial node on West Street just west of campusis covered here in its early years, a chapter will discuss its later history. Though not a part of Campustown, the small locality has retained its business presence for more than a century and has cultural ties to Campustown.
For terminology, West Ames refers to all of Ames that was west of Squaw Creek. For its first seven decades, the area was frequently referred to as the Fourth Ward because it was a separate electoral ward. Though the term will be used occasionally in quoting old newspaper pieces, Ive otherwise eliminated it because the terms relevance vanished after a redrawing of precinct lines in 1963. West Gate refers to the neighborhood around West Street and its commercial strip. Iowa State University had two names prior to its current one: Iowa Agricultural College and Iowa State College. By the time Campustown began to develop, the name was Iowa State College and remained so until 1959. I will usually call it Iowa State or the university for consistency.
Several streets have a prior nameand sometimes two. Ive minimized references to former names for consistency, but the old names are occasionally noted alongside a streets current name. Addresses are noted on occasion. To put them into context, Ill sometimes state what is currently (July 2016) or was recently at the location.
A plat map of Campustown in early 2016 with some buildings and locations highlighted.
