As the Iowa Digital Library approaches the 100,000-item mark, we’re celebrating this milestonetemp by highlighting some of our favorite items from the collections.

Title: Close Hall, The University of Iowa, 1900s
Creator: unknown
Collection: Iowa City Town and Campus Scenes

My staff pick is Close Hall which served as the YMCA/YWCA in the early part of the last century. From John C. Gerber’s A Pictorial History of The University of Iowa (University of Iowa Press, 2005):

When Close Hall was dedicated in 1890, so many people came to admire it that the floors sagged alarmingly, and the building was instantly condemned.  After repairs, it reopened and became home to the YM-YWCA. On January 16, 1896 Close Hall was the site of the first basketball game between two college teams of five men on a side.  Iowa lost to the University of Chicago, 15-12.  After 1924 Close Hall served the Journalism Department, the University printing service, and the Daily Iowan.  On New Year’s Day 1940 the building caught fire… [p. 70]

Aerial photographs from the 1960s, also available in this digital collection, show what was left of the building; only one floor remained at the time. It was finally demolished between 1968 and 1970; Biology Building West now stands on its former site.

–Bobby Duncan
Library Assistant, Digital Library Services