The Bennett Building, also known as the Ervin Building, is a historic building located in downtown

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 62,799 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, te ...

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. The previous building to occupy this property was a

Woolworth's Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses Australia and New Zealand * Woolworths Group (Australia), the largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand; named after the American F.W. Woolworth company, but unrelated * W ...

that was destroyed in a fire in 1922. with The Bennett Building Corporation was formed in 1923 to build an office building that was designed to attract medical professionals. The seven-story, brick, Early Commercial structure was designed by local architectural firm Jensen and Larson, and the

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

firm of McDonald and McDonald served as the supervising architects. E. A. Wickham and Company of Council Bluffs was the contractor. The building is tall, and it was historically the tallest building in downtown Council Bluffs. It follows a rectangular plan in the basement and first floor, and from the second to the seventh floor it follows an L-shaped plan. The exterior features a tripartite division. The first floor is a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

base that houses storefronts and the entrance lobby for the offices above. Floors two through six are composed of brick with large, regularly spaced windows. They contained professional offices, with many of them occupied by physicians and dentists. Many of Council Bluffs' women doctors had their practices here. The top floor is a modest brick and limestone crown that also housed offices. The Bennett Building has been converted into an apartment building. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2001.

References

{{NRHP in Pottawattamie County, Iowa Office buildings completed in 1924 Apartment buildings in Iowa Commercial architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Council Bluffs, Iowa Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Pottawattamie County, Iowa Chicago school architecture in Iowa