The story of Alfred Lawson's utopian, non-profit university is one of the stranger episodes in the history of the Midwest.

Open air schools in the United States started in 1908 but closed down by 1941. Children who attended usually suffered from tuberculosis (TB). Most people with TB were treated in sanitariums, but this…

Second and Euclid is the home of Park Fair Mall, but it was once the site of an interesting piece of Des Moines educational history. Highland Park College, Des Moines University, and the University of…