The Keokuk Young Women's Christian Association Building is a historic building located in

Keokuk, Iowa Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...

, United States. It 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 2004. The local

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

was organized in 1905 and initially leased space for their activities. The land for this building was donated by Gerard Huiskamp. Completed in 1913, the building was designed by local architect Harry E. Ratcliffe. It is representative of transitional architecture in the early 20th century. with The two-story brick structure is built on top of a full basement. It features

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

tile ornamentation. The exposed basement level is concrete that is designed to look like stone. In addition to the YWCA, the building served as a hub for social activities in the community. It was home to the YWCA for nearly 50 years until it merged with the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

, which sat across the street. From 1953 to 1975, both buildings were used by the combined organization. In 1975 a modern facility replaced the two older buildings, and the former YMCA building, which had been built in 1899, was torn down that year. In 1976 the first floor of the former YWCA building was renovated for use as the courthouse for southern Lee County. Those functions were transferred to the former United States Post Office and Courthouse in 1994.

References

{{Lee County NRHP Buildings and structures completed in 1913 Buildings and structures in Keokuk, Iowa Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Lee County, Iowa YWCA buildings Former courthouses in Iowa History of women in Iowa