Public Library of Des Moines
- Architect
- Gutterson & Smith
- Year
- 1903
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Des Moines, IA
The Public Library of Des Moines is a Beaux-Arts building completed in 1903, growing out of a library association founded in 1866 in a Methodist church basement and taken over by the city in 1882. The city bought the riverside site for $35,000 in 1898, laid the cornerstone in 1900, and opened the library in October 1903. It ceased operating as a library in 2006 and now houses the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates.
the building
Birthplace of the Library Bill of Rights. Under director Forrest Spaulding, the library was the birthplace of the Library Bill of Rights in 1938, drafted to fight intolerance, suppression of free speech, and censorship affecting minorities.
From library to Hall of Laureates. The building housed the Cumming School of Art in the 1920s, ceased functioning as a library in 2006, and now serves as the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates.
the style
The library was built in the Beaux-Arts style, the civic vocabulary chosen for its 1903 riverside site.
More on Beaux-Artssignificance
Individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and became a contributing property to the Civic Center Historic District in 1988.
nearby
- United States Post Office
- Homestead Building
- Des Moines City Hall
- United States Courthouse
- Hawkeye Insurance Company Building
- Iowa Commission for the Blind Building