Many people in the Des Moines area associate the Jewett name with Gilcrest Jewett Lumber, but George Jewett, a founding partner, had many other interests. In 1872, he helped found the Iowa Loan & Trust Co and before that, organized Des Moines Scale Co. He was a founder of Drake University and assisted in organizing the YMCA. But in 1888, an invention grabbed his attention: the typewriter.
The Jewett Typewriter Company sold one of the first commercially successful machines worldwide. According to the Des Moines Register, Jewett visited Europe 10 times to promote his typewriter business and his company received awards at the Chicago World’s Fair and the Paris Exposition. It was reported that the Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany owned one and the Bank of England used it when it switched from longhand.
The company began at 608 Locust but in 1906 moved to a three-story building on 3rd Street next door to Harbach Undertaking. This building was previously the Continental Biscuit Company.
Unfortunately, Jewett Typewriter had some challenges in the early 1900s, as some stockholders out East wanted to move the factory to Cleveland. Jewett Typewriter managed to hold out until about 1910 when it was purchased by Underwood Typewriter Company and fully ceased production in Iowa.
]]>The history of Harbach Lofts began more than 100 years ago with the beginning of Harbach Furniture. As shown in the National Register of Historic Places documentation, the Harbach family made significant contributions to the city of Des Moines, and the former Harbach Furniture complex indicates the family’s business success. At age 19, Louis Harbach began as a harness maker in Des Moines while his brother Christopher ran a small furniture shop on 2nd Street. Louis took a break from Des Moines and traveled to Cincinnati to learn cabinet making. When he returned, he and his brother opened a furniture shop together and expanded operations. Over the years, the business gained financial success, expanded, and moved its base of operations several times. In 1882, Harbach furniture had grown from a workshop of a few people building everything by hand into a furniture factory employing 150 people using machinery. Historian Jennifer James documents Harbach’s success and the importance of his contributions business-wise and architecturally in her National Register of Historic Places application for the Harbach Lofts at 300 SW 5th Street. The L. Harbach's Sons Co. and predecessor Harbach family firms including L. Harbach & Sons Co. manufactured furniture for more than seventy years in Des Moines and occupied this factory complex from 1906 to 1928. These large industrial buildings allowed the company to upgrade its manufacturing to early twentieth-century modern factory conditions to remain competitive in a changing marketplace. The warehouse allowed the company to accommodate stored materials as well as associated handling equipment in tandem with the rail line behind its complex. The Warehouse and Factory Complex also represents some of the earliest and largest industrial construction in Des Moines' then-newly emerging warehouse and jobbing district south of the major rail lines-an important real estate development, and one of the last major such real estate development projects undertaken by the L. Harbach & Sons Co. and its founder, Louis Harbach. Louis Harbach was noted during his lifetime as an important real estate developer in Des Moines who "set the pace" innovatively, building the first furniture factory in Des Moines; constructing the first four-, five-, and six-story retail commercial buildings in the city; continuing to improve his commercial buildings; and erecting the first building dedicated exclusively to mortuary purposes in the city (completed in 1916) - all of these buildings are non-extant, which raise the importance of these two rare surviving functionally related factory and warehouse buildings. (Des Moines Daily News, August 30, 1898; Halstead: 34) – Jennifer James National Register of Historic Places document. You may read the full history of The Harbach Lofts and more about the Harbach family in Jennifer James’ National Register of Historic Places application.
]]>1854 - Teenagers Marcus, Lipman, and Samuel Younker move to the United States from Lipno, Poland.
1856 – Lipman, Samuel, and Marcus Younker establish the first Younker & Brothers Dry Goods Store in Keokuk, Iowa. 1874 – A younger brother, Herman, opens the Younker Dry Goods Store in Des Moines. 1879 – The Keokuk store closes and the Des Moines store becomes the headquarters for Younker Brothers. 1881 – Younker Brothers hires Mrs. Mary McCann, the first woman to be employed by any store in Des Moines. 1899 – The Des Moines store moves to its long-term location at Seventh and Walnut Streets, opening on November 9.
1910 - Younker Brothers employs over 500 men and women. 1912 – Younker Brothers purchases the Grand Department Store. 1913 – The original Tea Room opens. 1927 – The new Tea Room replaces the old. 1927 – The company merges with Harris-Emery Company and becomes the largest department store chain in Iowa. 1928 – Younker Brothers buys J. Mandlebaum and Sons. 1936 – Air-conditioning comes to the entire downtown store. 1939 – A modernization program includes the installation of the first “electric stairs” (escalators) in Iowa. Thousands turn out to try the new invention. 1943 – Younker Brothers purchases the seven-story building across the street from the main store and opens the Store for Homes. A tunnel under the street connects the two stores. 1956 – Younker Brothers negotiates to buy the site of St. Gabriel’s monastery on Merle Hay Road. This later becomes the site of Merle Hay Mall. 1959 – Younker Brothers Merle Hay Mall store opens. 1950s-1960s – Younker Brothers opens several more Des Moines stores as well as branches in Sioux City, Iowa City, Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Omaha, Nebraska, and Austin, Minnesota. 1978 – Tragedy strikes when the Merle Hay store is destroyed by a fire which kills ten employees. 1979 – Equitable of Iowa purchases Younker Brothers for $72.2 million and makes the retailer a subsidiary officially named Younkers. 1985 – The downtown Store for Homes closes. 1986 – Younkers purchases major competitor Brandeis & Sons, which has eleven department stores in Iowa and Nebraska. 1992 – Younkers purchases the department store division of H.C. Prange Co., a privately owned chain with twenty-five stores. 1994 – Milwaukee-based retailer Carson Pirie Scott & Co. makes an unsolicited bid for Younkers, but the Younkers board votes not to sell. 1995 – Younkers accepts a bid for the company of $216 million from Proffitt’s, Inc., a Tennessee chain. 1998 – Proffitt’s buys Saks Fifth Avenue and makes Younkers a division of Saks. 2005 – The flagship downtown store closes on August 12, ending more than 100 years of retailing on the same site. A store-closing sale brings thousands of people downtown to purchase memorabilia ranging from teacups from the fabled Younkers Tea Room to the “Electric Stairs” sign which had hung over the escalators since 1939. It was the end of an era for downtown retailing in Des Moines. 2006 - Bon-Ton Stores acquires from Saks all the shares of its Northern Department Stores Group, and becomes the new corporate parent of Younkers.
2007 - Downtown Sioux City store, a presence since 1948, closes. 2007 - Store furnishings and memorabilia from the downtown Des Moines store are sold at a liquidation event in May. 2013 - Wisconsin-based Alexander Co begins renovation work on the Des Moines flagship building in September; plans are for retail on the first two floors and apartments above. 2014 - The downtown Des Moines building is gutted by fire on March 29; its cause is eventually ruled “undetermined.” 2018 - Last Younkers stores close August 29. 2018 - Indiana-based CSC Generation buys the Younkers name in September and launches a new website.
]]>In the summer of 1869 the first fire engine arrived in Des Moines: It was named the General Crocker Steamer in honor of General Marcellus Crocker, beloved Des Moines lawyer who died at the end of the Civil War. The steamer was financed by the Hawkeye Insurance Company, which only fought fires carrying the insurance company plaque on the building. The organization of a paid city fire department didn’t occur until March of 1882.
]]>A fashionable hotel known as the Demoine House once stood at First and Walnut Streets, which is now where the Polk County Office building resides. John Yost and Martin Tucker opened the Demoine House in April 1855, and it soon became the site of elegant parties for city residents and lodging for visitors. Part of the building was completed by covering some of the vacated barracks from the old fort. Not long after the DeMoine House opened, Colonel Sumner Spoffard (not officially a colonel) purchased it and ran it himself until 1862. Lorenzo F. Andrews writes, “it was a lively place. The bar-room annex on the south side was the rendezvous for politicians. There being no public hall, the dining-room was a favorite place for dancing parties, where, in the pale mellow light of tallow dips or whale oil, joy went unconfined.” When the state capital was moved to Des Moines, many people working in government stayed at the Demoine House, as well as those traveling through. Mildred Throne cites: The space between the river and the capitol was a muddy swamp… But the people of Des Moines tried to make up for the shortcomings of their little town by lavish hospitality – at least as lavish as the frontier could afford. On the west side, at the “only hotel of much pretentions” – the DeMoine House. There Governor Grimes had rooms, and Ralph P. Lowe awaited his inauguration, and the “soft coal stoves glowed with a red heat.” When Governor Grimes held his victory reception for U.S. Senate in January of 1858, it was at the Demoine House. Throne mentions it as “the famous hostelry” and Governor Grimes dressed the part, which many found surprising: One of the great levees given at the famous hostelry (Demoine House) was that given by Governor Grimes in honor of his election as United States senator. The Governor was never noted for the tidiness of his wearing apparel, and was often seen trudging from the DeMoine House over to the Capitol Building through the mud, generally with his pants stuck in his boot tops, or else one leg in the boot top and the other rolled up, while the rest of his dress was worn in a don't-care sort of manner—in fact it was on the slouchy order… But when the guests—the members of the legislative, the state officers, judges of the Supreme Court and leading citizens began to arrive they found a great surprise awaiting them, for there stood the senator elect clothed in a spick-and-span new full dress suit, patent leather shoes and kid gloves. This little incident furnished food for talk for the frontier town for many months. The old settlers even say that it was one of the grandest soirees ever given in the city. Senator-elect Grimes said there were 178 guests and all his rivals were there and they enjoyed a “harmonious, well-conducted, sumptuous feast.” Many other parties were held there, including one on Washington’s birthday in 1858 that had live music and dancing until 3 AM. The pioneers knew how to throw a party. The DeMoine house continued operating until 1877 when the building was pulled down. It was to be replaced with the Spofford but money became scarce, and it was never finished. Eventually, the property was deeded to Uncle Sam for a new post office in a deal negotiated by Louis Harbach.
]]>According to a Des Moines Register article, Egidio Romano came to Des Moines from Italy by way of Omaha, Kansas City, and then St. Paul. Romano started his fruit stand in Des Moines in 1891 and eventually became the Secretary-Treasurer of the Italian Importing Company, a wholesale grocery. His fruit stand snuggled up under the staircase to a drugstore at 221 5th Street on what was the Harbach Block.
]]>In the late 1800s, a notorious establishment stood at 212 Walnut Street: George Conradi’s Saloon. A saloon in a frontier town was not a novelty, but an establishment trying to sell liquor in a dry county or on dry days received attention. From 1847-1873, Iowa bars could only sell beer, apple cider, and wine. Starting in 1875, each county received the right make its own liquor laws. Conradi and his associates received regular mentions in the court section of the newspaper for serving liquor. One article includes an intro stating, “The Temperance People Feel that a Great Victory Has Been Gained and Enter Upon the Fight with Renewed Vigor: A Field Day for Temperance.” The article indicates that on December 4th, 1885, Conradi was charged “with keeping a building, No. 212 West Fourth street… as a place for the sale of intoxicating liquors in violation of the law” many times and in being a nuisance.
Conradi's Saloon was also memoralized in, The Career of Frank Pierce, or, How Prohibition Prohibits in Iowa. In the January 12, 1896 edition of The Des Moines Leader, a large section was dedicated to the review of this hot title and states before the first excerpt, "Here is the first literary gem in the book. It gives the history of a search in George Conradi's saloon, First and Walnut Streets." Eventually the temperance movement passed, and Conradi was able to legally operate his saloon. He moved to 517 Locust in 1897 and sold “fine wines and liquors, imported and domestic cigars.”
]]>In April of 1873, two men from New York, along with their families, stepped off the Keokuk & Des Moines rail line (Rock Island Line) to start a business based on innovation that would change the spice industry. Jehiel had been working for a spice company in Michigan when he convinced his brother Isaac to open a business with him in Des Moines. The west was new and ripe with opportunity, Des Moines was growing, and several rail lines passed through making it a desirable location for business. They started as a grocery with four employees on Water Street: Jehiel, Isaac, Aunt Mary, and “Mother.” After 10 years, Tone’s moved to a larger building at 213 Court Avenue. Ten years following, they moved to a new four-story building and focused on spices, roasted coffee, and manufactured baking powder. Tone Bros. brought many innovative ideas the spice market. It was the first spice company to individually package spices for sale. In the late 1800s, spices were scooped out of barrels into sacks, but prepackaged spices decreased purchasing times and flat pricing brought convenience to customers. In addition, they were also the first to roast coffee beans west of the Mississippi River. Jay Tone, Jr, in an interview with Des Moines Public Library discusses how at this time, coffee beans were purchased green, and then roasted at home. The convenience of pre-roasted beans reduced time in the kitchen and brought a more consistently flavored final product to the consumer. The company was also the first spice company to grind whole black pepper. Jay Tone, Jr. mentions how black walnuts used to be ground up in the pepper to give it a dark color, but Tone’s decided to sell pure ground pepper, increasing its quality and the company’s reputability.
The company eventually expanded its business to include the manufacturing of baking powder and extracts. In the late 1890's it branched out to other states and employed several salesmen.
Jay Tone, Sr, worked in his office at Tone's until the age of 96. Shortly after his retirement, the company was sold to Mid-Continent Bottlers. Tone, Sr. was born the year Tone's was founded and died at the age of 100, witnessing it's entire first century of operation.
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]]>In 1846, soon after the establishment of the state of Iowa, it was decided that it needed to be moved from Iowa City to a more central location. It took 9 years of rivalries for the legislature, with approval of Governor Grimes, to determine that the capitol be no further than 2 miles from the junction of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers. Willson Alexander Scott (originally from Illinois) and Harrison Logan donated the land on which the capitol currently resides. Scott was so keen on building his real estate business on the east side and truly believed the capitol would be a boon to his developments, that he paid for most of the temporary capitol’s building costs, as well as the moving costs to transport government documents and books from Iowa City to Des Moines. The temporary State Capitol stood for thirty years where the Soldiers and Sailors Monument is currently. The permanent capitol cost close to 375 million dollars and took seventeen years (1871-1886), and when the money ran out, it was still not complete. Robert Finkbine, Superintendent of Construction reported to the Board of Capitol Commissioners that the steps on the south and west sides still needed finished, frescoes weren’t complete, and offices still needed furniture, plastering, and wood work. Overall, finishing was needed, but the building was functional and daily business could occur. In 1900, a commission was created to work on improvements. These included décor, modern elevators, electrical, alarms, roof repairs and more. In addition, they commissioned beautiful artwork for the building, including the murals, mosaics, and sculptures we see today.
]]>The Court Avenue Restaurant and Brewing Co. building has housed many businesses over the years and managed to stay standing through times when many older buildings were razed. It is the last remaining example of a cast iron façade in Des Moines. This building began as the home of The Des Moines Saddlery Co. The saddlery business was founded by Jacob Rubelmann who came to Des Moines from Muscatine. Rubelmann was born in Germany in 1828 and came to the U.S. in 1849. He helped his father run a tannery in Muscatine for a couple years and spent some time in St. Louis before returning to Iowa. Jacob’s sons, George and John helped get the business up and running. They started with a four-story building with a single bay where they made harnesses and collars and eventually sold hardware, whips, robes, horse blankets, and horse brushes. According to local historian James Jacobsen, Rubelmann’s firm was incorporated as the Des Moines Saddlery and Hardware Company with William E. Hoffman, of Wheeling, Virginia, as president in 1887. Ground was broken for a building expansion in August. As Jacobsen indicates, it is unknown if this expansion was planned prior to the incorporation. The expansion included a building addition, as well as the addition of a fifth floor. The link to the Hoffman name can be seen in early advertisements for J. Rubelmann & Company where they indicate they only use “J.G. Hoffman & Son’s celebrated Star Oak Leather.” In 1902, this tannery was noted as one of the largest oak harness leather tanneries in the world with 300 employees. Their relationship with the Rubelmanns must have been strong, since the Hoffmans bought the factory upon J.E. Rubelmann’s retirement.
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