Des Moines Audio Walking Tour

Highlights

• Drake University

  Picture 77 students gathering in a single building called Student's Home when Drake University opened its doors in Des Moines in March 1881. Imagine those first classes in 1881: 77 students gathered in a single building called Student's Home, launched by George T. Carpenter, a teacher and pastor, and Francis Marion Drake, a Union general during the Civil War.

• 
  Hoyt Sherman Place

  Picture this house as a society showplace of the grandest scale when architect William Foster completed it for Hoyt Sherman in 1877. This house was completed in 1877 with the help of Iowa architect William Foster and was noted almost immediately as "a society showplace of the grandest scale.

• 
  801 Grand

  Principal Financial Group owns 801 Grand, the office skyscraper you are looking at, and JLL Americas manages it. From here you can take in why this tower reshaped the city: at 630 feet and 45 stories, it is the tallest building in Des Moines and the state of Iowa.

• 
  Pappajohn Sculpture Park

  Picture these 24 sculptures once displayed in the Pappajohns' own yard, where people drove by just to look, ahead of this park's 2009 opening. This park opened in 2009 with 24 sculptures—the original gift from local venture capitalist John Pappajohn and his wife Mary Louise Pappajohn (1933-2022)—later augmented by four more.

• 
  Ruan Center

  Ruan Transportation built the Ruan Center at 666 Grand Avenue, the skyscraper you are facing, and completed it in 1975. From here you can see why locals call it the "rusty skyscraper"—its exterior skin is Cor-Ten steel that sheds rust, made up of 1,600 US tons of that cladding.

All 33 stops

• Drake University Campus Historic District (Drake University)

  Notice the six buildings ahead — five collegiate buildings and one church complex — anchoring the southeast corner of Drake University's campus.

• Drake University (Des Moines)

  Picture 77 students gathering in a single building called Student's Home when Drake University opened its doors in Des Moines in March 1881.

• Knapp Center (Drake University Campus)

  Knapp Center, the 6,424-seat multi-purpose arena on Drake University's campus here in Des Moines, is the building you have reached.

• Hoyt Sherman Place (Des Moines)

  Picture this house as a society showplace of the grandest scale when architect William Foster completed it for Hoyt Sherman in 1877.

• Pappajohn Sculpture Park (Western Gateway)

  Picture these 24 sculptures once displayed in the Pappajohns' own yard, where people drove by just to look, ahead of this park's 2009 opening.

• Western Gateway Park (Downtown Des Moines)

  Western Gateway Park, an urban park in downtown Des Moines, opens out ahead of you.

• Thinker on a Rock (Des Moines)

  Thinker on a Rock, a bronze sculpture by Barry Flanagan from 1997, sits in front of you here at the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture…

• 801 Grand (Downtown Des Moines)

  Principal Financial Group owns 801 Grand, the office skyscraper you are looking at, and JLL Americas manages it.

• Ruan Center (Des Moines)

  Ruan Transportation built the Ruan Center at 666 Grand Avenue, the skyscraper you are facing, and completed it in 1975.

• Youngerman Block (Downtown Des Moines)

  Youngerman Block, the three-story commercial building in downtown Des Moines you have come to, wears Italianate architecture with later alterations that introduced Art Deco detailing.

• Hippee Building (Downtown Des Moines)

  Rising 172 feet and 12 stories over you, this is the Hippee Building in downtown Des Moines.

• Fleming Building (Downtown Des Moines)

  Fleming Building, a historic structure in downtown Des Moines, rises over you here.

• Liberty Building (downtown Des Moines)

  Liberty Building has marked downtown Des Moines since 1923, and you are at its base.

• Hubbell Building (Downtown Des Moines)

  Hubbell Building, a historic steel-framed, brick-clad tower in downtown Des Moines, is your stop here.

• Des Moines City Hall (Civic Center Historic District)

  Des Moines City Hall, the government building you are visiting, went up in 1909 and 1910.

• Public Library of Des Moines (Civic Center Historic District)

  Back in 1903 the city built the Old Downtown Des Moines Library, the historic building you are looking at here in downtown Des Moines.

• Temple for Performing Arts (Des Moines)

  Masonic Temple of Des Moines, the Beaux Arts building in front of you, was constructed in 1913.

• Scottish Rite Consistory Building (Des Moines)

  Scottish Rite Consistory Building rises in front of you.

• Cathedral Church of Saint Paul (Downtown Des Moines)

  St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, sits here in downtown Des Moines where you have stopped.

• First United Methodist Church (downtown Des Moines)

  First United Methodist Church, here in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984 under its original…

• Court Avenue Bridge (Civic Center Historic District)

  Court Avenue Bridge, the historic structure under your feet in downtown Des Moines, became a contributing property in the Civic Center Historic District in 1988…

• East Village (East Village)

  Historic East Village, the compact commercial and residential neighborhood directly east of Downtown Des Moines, spreads out in front of you.

• East Des Moines Union Depot (East Village Historic District)

  East Des Moines Union Depot, the Dutch Revival building you have come to, sits in the Market District, anchored in the East Village Historic District…

• East Des Moines Industrial Historic District (East Village)

  Directly east of Downtown Des Moines, in the East Village, you have entered the East Des Moines Industrial Historic District.

• Baker-Devotie-Hollingsworth Block (East Village)

  Baker-Devotie-Hollingsworth Block, in the East Village of Des Moines, is the building you are looking at.

• Northwestern Hotel (East Village)

  Northwestern Hotel, a brick-faced witness to a century of comings and goings in the East Village, is where you have paused.

• Hohberger Building (East Village)

  Here in the East Village of Des Moines, Iowa, you have reached the Hohberger Building, a historic presence on this commercial block.

• Des Moines Botanical Center (Downtown Des Moines)

  Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, a 12-acre, 5-hectare botanical garden near Downtown Des Moines, is where you have arrived.

• Sherman Hill Historic District (Sherman Hill)

  Sherman Hill Historic District in Des Moines, Iowa, spreads out ahead of you.

• Woodland Cemetery (Des Moines)

  Woodland Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Des Moines, was established in 1848, and the place you have reached predates the city's role as state capital.

• Hotel Fort Des Moines (Downtown Des Moines)

  Hotel Fort Des Moines, the landmark you are looking at, first opened in 1919 and was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places…

• Savery Hotel (downtown Des Moines)

  Renaissance Des Moines Savery Hotel, a historic building in downtown Des Moines, is where you have stopped.

• Randolph Hotel (Court Avenue)

  Fourth Street and Court Avenue meet at the corner where you are, under the Randolph Hotel, a landmark hotel of downtown Des Moines.

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