Old Main is an historic building located on the Iowa Wesleyan University campus in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, United States. Built in 1854, when James Harlan was the college's president, it is the second building constructed on the campus after Pioneer Hall. It is believed that Old Main was the first genuine collegiate building built in Iowa. The bricks for the building were manufactured locally by Benjamin Franklin Pearson of Keosauqua, Iowa, who also was responsible for some of the building's construction. with The three-story building has modified classical features. It was designed to have classrooms on the first two floors and the library, natural history museum and chapel on the third floor. The building is capped with a hip roof with bracketed

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

, and a wooden cupola with a low dome painted gold. The International P.E.O. Sisterhood was founded in the building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

References

School buildings completed in 1854 Buildings and structures in Mount Pleasant, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Henry County, Iowa University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa University and college academic buildings in the United States Iowa Wesleyan University {{Iowa-struct-stub