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Council Bluffs Changing Scene
In 1887, St. Francis Xavier Academy stood at the corner of Seventh St. and Fifth Ave. The building, then surrounded by young trees and a white rail fence, was used as an exclusive girls school which attracted students from all over the Midwest. At…
Today It Is Being Razed
More recently used as a classroom building and convent for St. Francis students and teachers, it has outlived its usefulness. The convent was moved into a new building at left. New additions in the lower picture include street paving, street…
Council Bluffs Changing Scene
It was November, 1885. At Pearl and Broadway stood the New Pacific Hotel where citizens gathered to discuss a new-fangled electric trolley line in Baltimore and the activities of Geronimo on the western plains. One year later Council Bluffs became…
Today
Today...Beno's Department Store stands on a portion of the site where the [New Pacific] hotel was located. The new hotel was shifted into a wing of what is now the Wickham Building after an 1872 fire. The new hotel closed in 1893. Today streetcars…
The Council Bluffs Changing Scene
This was the main dormitory and administration building of the Iowa School for the Deaf as it looked in 1887. In 1902, the building burned. Note the wagon trail across the foreground and the row of trees. The lawn was more like a pasture.
[Caption…
[Caption…
Today
Today...a modern fireproof building has replaced the old structure. It was complete four years after the fire. The wagon trail and most of the small elms are gone but the smooth lawn of the School has an abundance of shade trees. The tower on the…
Council Bluffs Changing Scene
This is the way the Glen Avenue water reservoir appeared in 1887. Although fenced, the open body of water was the scene of several drownings. Note the wooden stairway leading up to the reservoir and the house at right.
[photo print is captioned:…
[photo print is captioned:…
Today
Today...the 2,000,000 gallon capacity reservoir has been capped. The job was completed in the fall of 1942. Much of the heavy shrubbery has disappeared off the hill behind, although this picture was taken in the winter. A caretaker used to live in…
Council Bluffs Changing Scene
In 1887, the home of George A. Keeline stood on the hill at 129 Park Avenue. Not the small tree in the foreground and the figure standing on the front porch.
[print photo is captioned: Residence of Mr. Geo. A. Keeline
[print photo is captioned: Residence of Mr. Geo. A. Keeline
Things Have Changed
Things Have Changed...since large brick home [of George A. Keeline ] was torn down. Now standing on the site is the home of City Building Inspector Oscar Biesendorfer. The tree has grown.
Today
Today...the same residence is owned by Mrs. Mary Loper. The projection in the rear has become a separate building, occupied by Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Budatz.
Council Bluffs Changing Scene
This is the Council Bluffs Mail Terminal as it appear in 1887, when it was known as the Union Pacific Transfer. A hotel, one of the finest in the nation, was housed in the three-story brick building. It was patronized largely by railroad workers…
Today
Today...a modern building, remodeled in 1938, has replaced the old brick terminal. The hotel is gone. Diesel trains from eight of the nations leading railroads pull into the unloading sheds where the mail is thrown into automatic converyers[sic]. …
Council Bluffs Changing Scene
Looking up Main Street toward Broadway this was the picture in 1887. Groneweg and Schoentgen were wholesale grocers. other businesses occupied the two buildings immediately north of the grocery warehouse. The wooden building with the horse tied in…
Today
Today...there have been additions and deletions. The grocery warehouse has become the Morphy Drug Co. and a parking lot occupies the spot where the other two brick buildings were located. Magarrell and Co., heating contractors, fill the spots used…
Floods - Council Bluffs
Looking west from side of bluff between 10th and 11th Avenue (back of 3rd Street School House). Flood of April 25, 1881.
Floods - Council Bluffs
View of Council Bluffs during the Missouri River flood of 1881
Floods - Council Bluffs
View of Council Bluffs during the Missouri River flood of 1881
Floods - Council Bluffs
View of the Missouri River west of Council Bluffs during the flood of 1881
Floods - Council Bluffs
Proposed Missouri River development plan, 1971