While I worked on a project I called, "Elevator, Church, and Mill," I photographed Main Streets in cities across the Middle West, where builders used cast-iron in their storefronts.
While George Philip had his hardware store in a stone building, in a region where stone was hard to find, his entrance was wood or cast-iron.
Replacedment windows made Pella, Iowa famous. The city bowed to its Dutch roots in the Americanization of its Dutch Architecture.
In Coffeyville, Kansas the bank ordered its cast-iron building from a catalogue. Builders in the mid-nineteenth century turned to cast-iron building and storefronts because they were cheaper to build than the stone buildings like the hardward store in Hays.
In 1989 The National Register of Historic Places placed the Riverfront District of Bonaparte, Iowa on its list. The small city on the banks of the Des Moines River sports at least two cast-iron buildings, side by side. |
