The Benson Building, also known as the Union Bus Depot, was an historic building located in downtown

Ottumwa, Iowa Ottumwa ( ) is a List of cities in Iowa, city in and the county seat of Wapello County, Iowa, United States. The population was 25,529 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census. Located in the state's southeastern section, th ...

, United States. The

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

style commercial building was completed in 1930. The one-story structure was composed of highly textured, painted brick. The

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

featured a steeply-pitched

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roof and

half-timbering Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

. The building was originally used as an indoor miniature golf course. Its significance was attributed to its architecture. with It was individually 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 1995 as a part of the ''Ottumwa MPS''. In 2016 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 dist ...

in the Greater Second Street Historic District. On January 6, 2018, the structure caught fire and was destroyed. It was delisted from the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

References

Commercial buildings completed in 1930 Tudor Revival architecture in Iowa Buildings and structures in Ottumwa, Iowa Former National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Wapello County, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa 1930 establishments in Iowa 2018 disestablishments in Iowa {{Iowa-struct-stub