The William Bostick House is a historic building located at 115 North Gilbert Street in Iowa City, Iowa.

Description and history

William H. Bostick, who built this house in 1851, is credited with constructing the first brick building in the city. with The two-story structure is a vernacular high style Greek Revival. The decorative elements were kept to a minimum. It features limestone

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

s, a low-pitched hipped roof, an

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

style porch with a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

of turned spindles, and a simple

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

across the top. The bricks and stonework have long been painted. It is believed the building served as an early

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

here and as a recruitment center for Civil War regiments. While the house has always been on this lot, it was moved to its current location further back on the lot in 1908. The present porch was added at that time. The house was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 2004 it 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 Jefferson Street Historic District.

References

Houses completed in 1851 Greek Revival houses in Iowa Houses in Iowa City, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Iowa City, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa {{Iowa-struct-stub