Close Hall is a former multi-purpose facility on the campus of the University of Iowa in

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

, Iowa, United States, that was opened in 1890 and demolished between 1968 and 1970. In 1896, Close Hall hosted the first collegiate five-on-five basketball game.

Construction

Made of brick, construction of the building began in 1888 and completed in 1890 on land owned jointly by the university and Iowa City. The cost of construction was supplemented through a contribution of $10,000 by Mrs. Helen S. Close in order for the YM- YWCA to be completed. The three-story building was the site of the first five-on-five college basketball game in 1896. The basement of the building housed the women's gymnasium as well as industrial chemistry labs. The first floor contained offices and recitation rooms, while the second floor housed literary societies as well as additional offices. The building became the first home of the Iowa Hawkeyes men's basketball team in its early years. The team would move to the first Iowa Armory in 1905. Eventually the building would become the school of journalism for the University of Iowa and would house the campus typesetting machines and printing presses. It would be from these presses that The Daily Iowan,

The Hawkeye ''The Hawk Eye'' is a general-circulation newspaper based in Burlington, Iowa, United States, and boasts itself as "''Iowa's Oldest Newspaper''." History The newspaper traces its roots to the ''Wisconsin Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advert ...

, Frivol, Iowa Literary Magazine, The Transit and

The Journal of Business ''The Journal of Business'' was an academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of C ...

would be printed. Close Hall would remain the home of the school of journalism as well as the university press room until the late 1950s.

Fire, rebuild and demolition

On January 1, 1940, Close Hall had a devastating fire that caused irreparable damage. The building was reconstructed as a one-story building and maintained as the school of journalism and university publishing. After the university publishing left, Close Hall became an underused, gaudy building on a valuable piece of property. The university officially closed the building in 1968 and over the course of the following two years demolished the structure. Today, the University of Iowa's Biology Building East stands on the Close Hall former site at Dubuque Street and Iowa Avenue.

References

Iowa Hawkeyes basketball venues Sports venues in Iowa University of Iowa campus Defunct college basketball venues in the United States 1890 establishments in Iowa Basketball venues in Iowa Sports venues completed in 1890 1970 disestablishments in Iowa Buildings and structures demolished in 1970 Defunct sports venues in Iowa {{Iowa-sports-venue-stub