Court Hill Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located in

Ottumwa, Iowa Ottumwa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 25,529 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census. Located in the state's southeastern section, the city is split into northern and southern halves b ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is a residential area of large homes with a few small homes in between. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1998 as a part of ''Ottumwa MPS''. At the time of its nomination it contained 84 resources, which included 56

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, two

contributing structures In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

, 25 non-contributing buildings, and one non-contributing site. with

History

Court Street was developed as a major artery from the

Des Moines River The Des Moines River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwestern United States that is approximately long from its farther headwaters.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe Na ...

to Sixth Street, which was Ottumwa's original city limits, where it made a slight turn to the north and headed up a bluff and into the countryside above the river valley. It is possible that it is the road established by the Iowa Territorial Legislature in 1844 that extended from the southern

Davis County Davis County is or was the name of the following counties in the United States: *Davis County, Iowa, named in honor of Garrett Davis, a Congressman from Kentucky *Davis County, Utah, named for Daniel C. Davis, captain in the Mormon Battalion *Cass ...

border to the northern

Wapello County Wapello County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 35,437. The county seat is Ottumwa. The county was formed on February 17, 1843, and named for Wapello, a Meskwaki chief. Wapello County ...

border and connected the two

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

s. Later it was signed as U.S. Highway 63. The oldest houses in the district were built between 1865 and 1875. The first electric

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

began operating on Court Street in 1889. The street was paved with bricks in 1890 and 1891. Both projects led to increased development of the area between 1890 and 1915. From this period until 1942 a centralized steam heat system was available in the city and the main pipes were located under Court Street. Because of this, the street was never covered with snow or ice during the winter and people could always climb to the top of the bluff when other streets were impassable. During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

years many of the large homes were divided into multi-family dwellings. That process started to be reversed in the late 20th century when historic preservation took root in Ottumwa.

Architecture

Most of the houses are large in size, but a few smaller houses are scattered throughout the district. While some of the houses have been altered over the years, most of them retain a high level of integrity. Very few of the original buildings in the district have been torn down, and therefore, there is little in the way of new construction. A variety of the most fashionable Victorian styles were built in the district. The most popular include

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, Neoclassical, and Queen Anne. Architects who have designs in the district include

George Kern George Calvin Kern Jr. (April 19, 1926 – November 27, 2012), a native of Baltimore, Maryland, was a leading New York corporate lawyer in the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Kern graduated with an A.B. from the School of Public and Internatio ...

, Edward Clark, and Fisher & Lowrie.

References

{{NRHP in Wapello County, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Historic districts in Wapello County, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Wapello County, Iowa Buildings and structures in Ottumwa, Iowa