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Business Guild Brochure |
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A simple brochure highlighting businesses in the area is being created by a subcommittee of the group forming the Business Guild of Sherman Hill. This brochure is seen as an initial effort that will be inexpensive to produce and distribute. The primary purpose of the brochure will be to promote area businesses and the perception of the Sherman Hill neighborhood as a good place to do business. The initial printing will also provide feedback for improvement of future brochures. To be included in the brochure, business owners are encouraged to provide very brief information (25 words or so) about what they offer. Please contact Judy McClure at 654 19th Street #1 or via email at Hatshop@aol.com. Include your business name, contact information, and the brief description of what your business offers as soon as possible. Larger “ads” that contain more detailed descriptions are likely to be available for a fee, but the cost and details are still in discussion. Look for more details on this later in the summer. |
Community Calendar |
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Monday, September 2nd |
Carter House |
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P RESERVATION IS THE NAME of the game in Sherman Hill, and you can apply it to trees as well as houses. White oaks are an important part of the Sherman Hill landscape. But though they look like they’ll be there forever, they won’t. Although there are many healthy oaks in the neighborhood, there are also plenty that are stressed from disease, construction or damage. You can see the signs in fungus growing at the base of the trees, dead branches and damaged trunks.
Oaks grow slowly, and it’s sometimes hard to fit something that grows so slowly into your landscaping plans when you want results now. But preserving the neighborhood is not just about preserving the houses—it’s about preserving the whole look of the neighborhood and that includes the trees.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? For trees that are already damaged, the best you can do is protect them from more damage. To protect healthy trees, be careful not to compact the soil beneath the tree’s drip line or change the grade around the trees. And try not to disturb white oaks, which are especially sensitive to damage from construction. (Often damage doesn’t show up for 5 to 10 years after the construction is done.) But the most important thing to do is plan—and plant!—ahead.
• Because these trees are very large fully grown, don’t plant an oak too close to the house or else, in the future, you will have to decide whether to prune or even remove the tree. And don’t plant it too close to another big tree; that could cause your new tree to lean as it tries to get maximum sun exposure.
• Remember that no matter what kind of tree you’re planting, bigger is not necessarily better. Smaller trees usually transplant better, with less transplant shock. In fact, a tree that was 5- to 6-feet tall when it was planted will catch up to a tree that was 12-feet tall when planted within just 4 or 5 years.
Stephanie Bruner is a plant technician at Iowa State University, with a degree in ornamental horticulture. She is planning her garden at 680 18th Street
MORE THAN 50 NEIGHBORS gathered up and down 20th Street at midnight on Tuesday, July 9th to watch two early 20th-century houses, loaded on extra-wide trucks, move to their new homes on the former T. Fred Henry property. The housemoving crew moved the 1,700-squarefoot, two-story 1905 cottage onto the foundation on the south lot, at 673 20th St. (The driver skillfully maneuvered his truck, narrowly avoiding both the 100-year-old oak tree on the east side of the street and the old-fashioned lamppost on the west side. The front lawns of Phil Shields and Terry Dial weren’t quite so lucky.) After spending the night parked in the middle of 20th Street, the second house—a 1,100- square-foot, 11⁄2-story cottage built in 1900, was moved onto the north-side lot at 677 20th St.
Once its foundation is finished, the northside house will be moved into place. Kinter Construction is rehabbing both houses simultaneously. Work will first begin on the exterior, including repairing the roofs, replacing the porches, doing siding repair, replacing windows, and painting. Hal Davis is choosing the color palettes for the exterior paints. Saving these homes, which were slated to be torn down due to road construction, has been a joint effort by the Neighborhood Finance Corporation, the city of Des Moines, the Iowa Department of Transportation, and the SHA.
KUDOS! To York Taenzer, Martha Green, and Judy McClure for finding a way to save the mighty 100-year-old oak tree on the T. Fred Henry lot. The initial housemove plan required that the tree be cut down so that the two foundations could be dug at the same time and the two houses could be moved onto their new lots at the same time. After discussions with the house movers, architects, and city planners, a creative alternative was discovered. In short, the south-side house was moved onto its foundation, and the northside house was temporarily set down right next to it, leaving room on the north-side lot to dig the second foundation at a later date. Although this option cost a bit more money, it saved the century-old oak tree.
KUDOS! To all of you who support the Sherman Hill Walking Tour. That event is our biggest fund-raiser for the year, and it was—in part—the SHA money that enabled the neighborhood to spend the extra money needed to dig the houses’ foundations at two separate times and to have the house movers come twice—and which saved the oak tree.
KUDOS! To Marc Schelle for donating his real-estate services for the sale of the two 20th Street houses. Marc’s volunteer efforts are helping to make this enormous project financially viable. If you know if anyone interested in purchasing these homes, please contact Marc at 979-0400.
Fall newsletter deadline
The next SHA newsletter will be distributed in early November. If you have an item, event, or topic you’d like to include, please send that information to Christine Bourque no later than October 1st. Mail to: 662 20th St. or cehbourque@aol.com. Include your name and phone number. Submissions may be edited for length.
NEEDED!fall house tour volunteers |
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P LANS ARE IN FULL SWING for the 2002 Sherman Hill Walking Tour of Homes—and we need your help! This year’s “Doors to the Past” tour is on Saturday and Sunday, September 21 and 22 and September 28 and 29. The event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, will feature nine homes. In addition, tour organizers also hope to open the two houses that were recently moved to 20th Street, provided, of course, that they’re safe for visitors by September. Volunteers are needed to help host houses, work at the food tent, sell tickets at the Wallace House, and much more. To volunteer, call Nelda Mickle at 282-0396. Tour tickets can be purchased in advance at six different local businesses. Adult tickets are $8 in advance, $10 on tour days; children 12 and under are $5. |
T he two-hour “Ghosts and Graveyard” tour—which features Sherman Hill’s Wallace House for the first time this year—is sure to raise your spirits. Guides lead the tours to the area’s darkest and most haunted places, presenting local tales and legends that will give you goose bumps. Group rates for 20 or more available. For information and reservations, call Magical History Tours at (515) 270-6654 or via email at: info@magicalhistorytours.com.
Neighborhood Real Estate Sales Sales information collected from the Polk County Assessor's Office. For more information, consult the assessor's website at www.co.polk.ia.us.
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ADDRESS |
SALE PRICE |
DATE OF SALE |
YEAR BUILT |
SQUARE FEET
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| 669 20th Street |
no info yet |
07/2002 |
1875 |
2,600 |
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716 19th Street |
190,000 |
06/2002 |
1884 |
2200 |
Contact these neighborhood landlords about possible apartment vacancies in Sherman Hill: Sonja Roberts and Jack Hatch: 244-2941
Dave Carlson: 282-3273
I n preparation for this year’s Sherman Hill Walking tour, volunteers are needed for a fall clean up day at the Henry Wallace House Museum on September 8th from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Come and meet the new executive director, Richard Graves! Brunch will be served to all who attend. Please RSVP to Danèlle Stamps at 243-7063 or danellestamps@wallace.org and let her know of any special skill you can contribute. The Wallace House is located at 756 16th Street.
S top by the Wallace House to view its current exhibit, on display through September 30th, which shows photographic views of Des Moines at the turn of the 20th century. “Uncle Henry’s Des Moines: 1880-1920” features the era in which the first Henry Wallace, the founder of Wallaces’Farmer, lived and worked in central Iowa. Travel to the Younkers downtown storefront or near the Agricultural Building at the State Fairgrounds and compare then and now. See what housing near the Capitol looked like in 1911. There was once a trolley on Ingersoll Avenue, elephants from the traveling circus that bathed in the Des Moines River, and a large fountain with decorative swan sculptures on Court Avenue. Included in the exhibit are also residential pictures of Sherman Hill neighborhood.
Henry and his wife, Nancy, moved to the house at 756 16th Street (pictured, right) in 1892, while he was still the editor of The Iowa Homestead. In 1895 Wallace co-founded Wallaces’Farm and Dairy with his sons Henry C. and John. The name changed to Wallaces’Farmer in 1899. “Uncle Henry,” as he called himself in pen, served as editor until his death in 1916, and his son and grandson in turn edited the newspaper before embarking on political careers.
Some of photographs of the Wallace House that are part of the permanent exhibit might have been taken by Henry’s daughter Josephine, who was a photographer. Most of the photographers, however, are anonymous. The photos are copy prints of images in the archives of the State Historical Society Library in Des Moines. Many selections come from Ashby and Bassford Collections (all prints of originals found by collectors.) Some of the prints are from the Redhead Collection, possibly taken by Wesley Redhead.
The exhibit is displayed in rotation with other exhibits at the Wallace House and is also available for loan. The Wallace House Museum, 756 16th Street, Des Moines, is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; other hours are by special appointment.
—Danèlle Stamps
T he city of Des Moines has given the SHA the go-ahead to sell approximately 25,000 bricks from a downtown street that will be taken up due to construction later this summer.
WHEN: Saturday, August 10th from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date: Sunday, August 11th, same times.
WHAT: For sale are 100-year-old brick street pavers in good condition and that have never been laid in tar or concrete.
WHERE: Fifteenth Street at Walnut (Next to the Crane Building).
HOW: Bring your own wheelbarrow, shovel, gloves and transporting vehicle. Purchasers will be responsible for digging up their own bricks and loading them onto their own vehicles for delivery.
COST: 15 cents each to residents of Des Moines. 10 cents each to SHA members. (If you’re not a member of the SHA, join now and receive the discounted price.)
RESERVE quantities in advance by calling Stephanie Bruner (288-8043 evenings best) with your name, phone number, and the number of bricks you’d like to buy. On the day of the sale, bricks that are not reserved will be available on a first come, first served basis. This sale will be advertised to the public.
If there are any bricks left over, they will be offered free to Saturday purchasers and Sherman Hill Association members on Sunday at 7 a.m. All proceeds benefit the SHA.
Light up the night I N SOLIDARITY WITH the 19th annual National Night Out (NNO)—America’s Night Out Against Crime—we ask that everyone in the neighborhood turn on their porch lights on the evening of Tuesday, August 6th. NNO is a unique crime/drug prevention event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch. Last year’s National Night Out campaign involved citizens, law enforcement agencies, civic groups, businesses, neighborhood organizations, and local officials from 9,500 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities, and military bases worldwide. In all, 32 million people participated in NNO 2001.
NATIONAL NIGHT OUT is designed to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness; generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs; strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.
N ow that the 1620 Pleasant St. building is becoming the property of the Neighborhood Investment Corporation, we’re asking for help with its scheduled cleanup.
WHEN: Saturday, August 3rd, starting at 8 a.m.
CLEANUP: Chores include trimming hedges, tearing up carpet, moving furniture, cutting trees, washing windows, vacuuming, scrubbing, dusting, and more.
GARAGE SALE: Volunteers get first dibs at the garage sale, which starts at 10 a.m. Items for sale include adjustable beds, nite stands, desks, chairs, whirlpools, etc. Come at 8 a.m. and get first choice on all sale items. Volunteers receive a 25% discount!
PARTY! Starting at 6:30 p.m., join us for a potluck dinner. Beverages (some strong), burgers, brats are provided. Bring salad, casserole, dessert, beans.
I f you notice any burned out bulbs or damage to our neighborhood's histroic streetlights, please call Stephanie Bruner at 288-8043 (evenings best) with the details. Please be patient; it may take a week or two before the streetlights are repaired.
T he next SHA newsletter will be distributed in early November. If you have an item, event, or topic you'd like to include, please send that information to Christine Bourque no later than October 1st. Mail to: 662 20th St. or cehbourque@aol.com. Include your name and phone number. Submissions may be edited for length.
Dues Are Due!!!
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Sherman Hill News
is a publication of the Sherman Hill Association, Inc., a
non-profit corporation with offices at 756 16th St., Des
Moines, IA 50314. The Association is dedicated to the
restoration of the Sherman Hill Historic District,
enhancement of the district's social environment and
commitment to the district.
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T WO FOR ONE! QUARTERLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING & DEDICATION OF 1620 PLEASANT: AUGUST 12
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