The Teachout Building is a historic building located in the East Village of

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

, United States. It was individually 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 1999. In 2019 the building was included as a

contributing property 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 distri ...

in the

East Des Moines Commercial Historic District Historic East Village is a commercial and residential neighborhood in central Des Moines, Iowa, United States, directly east of the Downtown Des Moines area. The neighborhood is bounded by Interstate 235 on the north, the Des Moines River on the ...

History

Horace E. Teachout, for whom the building was named, was a developer who helped plan the East Village. with He started planning for what would be the tallest building on the east side of Des Moines in 1911, and it would be completed a year later. The prominent Des Moines architectural firm of

Proudfoot, Bird and Rawson Proudfoot & Bird was an American architectural firm that designed many buildings throughout the Midwest region of the United States. Originally established in 1882, it remains active through its several successors, and since 2017 has been known as ...

designed the building in the Early Commercial style. It was one of the few high-rise buildings designed by the firm. A renovation of the building was begun in the 1970s, but was not completed because of the completion of the MacVicar freeway, Interstate 235, allowed people to bypass the area for other parts of the city and suburbs and made this section of Des Moines less desirable. It sat empty until it was eventually renovated in the 1990s. It currently houses retail businesses, offices and a private residence on the sixth floor.

References

{{Historic Des Moines structures Commercial buildings completed in 1912 Chicago school architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Des Moines, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa