The Lexington, also known as Lexington Apartments, is a historic building located in

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. The five-story brick structure on a raised basement was completed in 1908 as the city's first high-rise apartment building. with It was designed and built by local architect-builder Fred Weitz. The exterior features a

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

style entrance with a recessed door, arched

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

, and engaged

Doric style The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

columns that support the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

Wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

balconies are located on the two floors above the entrance. On the interior there are two apartments on every floor, and they originally featured servant's quarters. They have subsequently been converted into other purposes. The upper floors are served by a large, open-cage brass

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

. The building purportedly had paranormal activity involving its elevator. It was renovated between 2012 and 2014. 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 1976. 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

Sherman Hill Historic District The Sherman Hill Historic District is located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. It is one of the oldest residential suburbs in Des Moines. Single-family houses were constructed beginning around 1880 and multi-family dwellings were built betw ...

in 1979. It is currently owned by the Allen Family Trust.

References

Residential buildings completed in 1908 National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa Apartment buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Apartment buildings in Des Moines, Iowa {{DesMoinesIA-stub