Woodlawn is an enclave of 14 well-preserved late 19th and early 20th century residences located at the Y-shaped junction of Iowa Avenue, Evans Street, and Muscatine Avenue. “Governor’s Square” located southwest of Woodlawn, was originally planned as the location for the governor’s residence. After the capital relocated to Des Moines in 185, these plans were abandoned and Governor’s Square was replatted for house lots. In 1889 S.M. Clark’s Sub-division, which contains Woodlawn, was platted east of the terminus of Iowa Avenue. Beginning in the 1880s houses were built along Woodlawn Avenue’s spacious lots featuring Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Stick/Eastlake, and Tudor Revival styles. Through the years, a Woodlawn address, like that of South Summit Street, connoted prestige. The Woodlawn Historic District was listed on the National Register in 199 and became a local historic district in 1983. Since that time, 15 design reviews have been conducted. Several buildings and mature landscape elements on Woodlawn were seriously damaged in the April 2006 tornado.
Rochester Avenue – Overview
The Rochester Avenue Neighborhood includes facing blocks along the avenue and blocks to the south from roughly Elizabeth Street on the west to Parsons Avenue or Ralston Creek on the east and from Bloomington Street on the north to Jefferson Street/Glendale Avenue on the south. This neighborhood includes the heavily tornado damaged-area along Hotz Street and Clapp Street. The neighborhood contains several additions platted from end of World War I through ca. 1960, including the Rose Hill Addition, J.W. Clark’s Addition, Raphael Placer Addition, Memler’s Addition (1951), Highland Addition Pt. 2 (1954), Wildwood Addition (1956), Streb’s 1st Addition (1958), and Mark Twain Addition (1959). The meandering course of the North Branch of Ralston Creek and Glendale Park are included.
The pre-urban history of Rochester Avenue saw farmsteads and acreages owned by Ruth Irish and O.S. Barnes on north side of Rochester Avenue and J.P. Memler, Peter Zach and O.S. Barnes on south side of Rochester Avenue. Housing stock in the neighborhood includes one- and two-story frame and masonry residences, a mix of vernacular house forms such as the American Four-Square, Front-Gable and Wing, and Suburban Cottage. The neighborhood also includes pre- and post-World War I domestic architectural styles including variations of the Craftsman, Colonial Revival, and Bungalow styles.