Pella Preservation Trust

Pella Preservation Trust To Preserve and Promote Buildings, Sites and Landscapes important to the Heritage of Pella, Iowa.

What would you consider the most significant event in Pella’s history? Take a moment to think about it, then let us know...
05/31/2026

What would you consider the most significant event in Pella’s history? Take a moment to think about it, then let us know your answer in the comments.

For me, the answer would be the arrival of the railroad.

The first train steamed into Pella on Thursday afternoon, December 15, 1864. Today it is difficult to imagine just how dramatically that single event changed the community. Up to that point, Pella was a small, even sleepy village. The only way to move people, goods, mail, or news in and out of town was by wagon or stagecoach over bridgeless dirt roads.

Transportation had always been a major concern for Pella’s founders. One of the reasons Henry Scholte and the Dutch immigrants came to Iowa in 1847 was the availability of affordable farmland. But Scholte also wanted access to trade routes. For that reason, Pella was founded along what was then known as the State Road—a grand name for a simple dirt route running along the ridge between Keokuk on the Mississippi River and Fort Des Moines. Pella was laid out where the Des Moines and Skunk Rivers were at their closest point.

At the time, many believed rivers would become Iowa’s transportation highways. The state sponsored an ambitious project to build locks and dams along the Des Moines River to make it navigable year-round. The smaller Skunk River provided water power for mills and industry. But the Des Moines River improvement project eventually stalled amid financial difficulties, mismanagement, and corruption.

Without reliable river transportation, moving goods across Iowa remained expensive and difficult. When Pella’s first steam-powered grist mill was erected in 1856, its twenty-foot-long boiler had to be hauled across the state by ox team and wagon over roads that were little more than muddy tracks and lacked bridges entirely. Scholte and other community leaders even advocated for a wooden plank road from Keokuk to Pella. Remarkably, about twenty miles of that road were actually completed.

Then the railroad entered Iowa.

In 1857, funds originally intended for the Des Moines River project were redirected to build a railroad through the Des Moines Valley. Progress was slow, and the outbreak of the Civil War delayed construction even further. But seven years later, the railroad finally reached Pella.

More importantly, it stopped here.

The railroad arrived in mid-December, and construction halted for the winter. For several months, Pella became the western end of the line. A depot and roundhouse were constructed, railroad workers remained in town, and businesses sprang up to serve them. Some of those workers and their families chose to stay, adding to the diversity of what had previously been a predominantly Dutch and Reformed community. Among them were Irish and Catholic families who established lasting roots in Pella.

For the next two years, until the tracks reached Des Moines, Pella served as the western terminus of the railroad. For a brief time, Pella was the gateway to central Iowa. Travelers, merchandise, livestock, grain, mail, newspapers, machinery, and supplies all arrived here before continuing west by wagon. Merchants and passengers from as far away as Winterset, Indianola, and Des Moines traveled to Pella to receive freight and conduct business.

The opportunities were immediately recognized. The same week the railroad arrived, commission merchants David Huber and Charles Snow established Snow & Huber, a business that handled incoming merchandise and outgoing agricultural products. They built grain elevators and stockyards near the tracks. Their surviving record books list everything from hardware and stoves to agricultural implements, clothing, and even liquor.

Within a year, the telegraph arrived as well. For the first time, Pella residents could receive news from distant cities almost instantly rather than waiting days or weeks for information to arrive.

The railroad transformed the community. South Pella grew rapidly. Hotels, lumber yards, warehouses, commission houses, and industries clustered around the depot. The original depot stood just south of today’s South Street between Clark and Prairie Streets—the future site of the canning factory and later Heritage Lace. Nearby stood grain elevators, stockyards, and a roundhouse that remained in operation for nearly thirty years. In 1905, a new, still-surviving, brick depot was constructed a few blocks to the northwest, and the old wood-frame depot was relocated beside it for use as a warehouse.

The railroad continued to serve Pella for more than 140 years. Although the original depot, roundhouse, elevators, and many of the businesses that surrounded them are gone today, their influence remains visible on the community and in the growth patterns of South Pella and the industries that followed.

Preservation is not only about saving buildings. It is also about remembering the events that shaped them. Few—if any—events influenced Pella more than the arrival of the railroad in 1864.

What are your thoughts? Was the railroad the most important development in Pella’s history? Do you have memories of trains in Pella or stories passed down through your family? We would love to hear them.

– Researched and written by Pella Historian Bruce Boertje

What stood here before? I recently had a request for a photo of 706 Washington Street as it originally appeared. The bui...
05/17/2026

What stood here before? I recently had a request for a photo of 706 Washington Street as it originally appeared. The building there today is relatively recent compared to some of downtown Pella’s older commercial buildings, but it has a story of its own.

In 1948, Dan Dingeman built a modern two-story brick-block building on the site. The main floor was occupied by Pella Plumbing and Heating Co., the basement by Charles Burkhart Photography Studio, and the upstairs by a V.F.W. hall.

Unfortunately, when the building was only four months old, Charles and Mrs. Burkhart were painting the basement stairs and floor, when he spilled paint thinner and it caught fire. The basement quickly filled with smoke and flames, and the Burkharts fled with their lives. Because there was only one way into the basement, firefighters had a difficult time reaching the fire. They finally chopped a hole through the main floor to gain access. The photography studio was a complete loss and never reopened.

Pella Plumbing put in a new floor and continued operating in the building. The business was later sold, and Van Sittert Plumbing eventually took over the location. Since 1981, the building has housed a variety of service businesses, including law offices, insurance agents, financial advisors, and marketing firms.

But the story of this lot reaches back much farther than 1948.
The building that previously stood here appears to have dated at least to the 1860s. It was a two-story wood-frame structure, reportedly built with wooden pegs instead of nails. Its earliest documented use was as a crockery store, followed by a grocery store and then a hardware store. By 1911, it had become a millinery store.

That detail opens a window into another part of Pella’s downtown history. Ladies’ hats and accessories were once big business. In 1893, Pella had no fewer than four millinery stores operating at the same time—this at a time when the town’s population was less than 2,500.

This location continued as a millinery store until 1946, when Dorothy Wormhoudt, its final proprietor, retired and sold the building to Prescott Steenhoek. Steenhoek had the old structure taken apart and salvaged the lumber before selling the property to Dan Dingeman, who constructed the present brick building in 1948.

Businesswomen are fairly rare in Pella’s early history, but one place where they really shined was in the millinery trade. So, while 706 Washington Street may look like a mid-20th-century commercial building today, the site also preserves the memory of an older downtown storefront, changing businesses, and the women who helped shape Pella’s commercial life.

- Researched and written by Pella Historian Bruce Boertje

Historic Tuttle Cabin will be open for FREE tours during Tulip Time. Please stop by! Pella Preservation Trust board memb...
05/06/2026

Historic Tuttle Cabin will be open for FREE tours during Tulip Time. Please stop by! Pella Preservation Trust board members will be there to answer your questions on everything from Tuttle, to Pella, to Preservation. Stop by and see us between 10:00am and 6:00pm this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 7-9. We're looking forward to seeing you!

The Lost Giesler Store of South Pella.Research continues on the history of Pella’s old canning factory—an operation that...
05/04/2026

The Lost Giesler Store of South Pella.

Research continues on the history of Pella’s old canning factory—an operation that served South Pella for more than a century at two different locations. That story will be the subject of an upcoming post. But while researching the factory, I solved a mystery that had puzzled me for years.

The 1922 Souvenir History of Pella contains a photograph labeled simply: “Old Giesler store in South Pella near the old canning factory site.”

For a long time, I was never quite sure where that building stood. But in tracing the history of the canning factory, the answer finally surfaced. The Giesler store once occupied the northwest corner of what are today South and Clark Streets—just a block from Pella’s original railroad depot. In fact, the original canning factory stood on three lots directly north of the store.

That location made perfect sense. In the 1870s, the depot area was one of the busiest places in town, with freight, passengers, workers, and travelers constantly passing through. A hotel also stood one block east, just north of the depot, helping make this part of South Pella a developing commercial center.

The store was operated by Charles Giesler, a German immigrant who arrived in Marion County in 1868 with his wife, Christian, and their growing family, soon to include six children. Charles was 33 years old at the time. Only a few years later, in 1871, he was listed as one of the stockholders in the newly organized First National Bank of Pella.

The first newspaper mention of the business appeared in 1874, when a Knoxville woman filed suit: “against C. A. Giesler, who keeps a saloon near the depot, for selling her husband whisky, laying her damages at $1,000.” Two weeks later, the paper reported that the matter “was settled without a trial, Mrs. McClelland accepting $100 in satisfaction.”

The business itself was described at various times as both a grocery store and a saloon. It likely sold groceries, but its primary purpose may have been serving railroad workers and travelers stopping near the depot.

Giesler also became involved in the growing statewide debate over prohibition. In 1879, he and two other local saloon owners traveled to Des Moines as Pella’s “representatives of the liquor-selling interests of the State.”

The Iowa State Register observed that “the events of the past few months had stirred up the men who deal in liquor to a determination not yet reached in this state.” The article went on to state that “the reasons that brought them together…was to inaugurate a contest of protection against fanaticism, and to notify all prohibitionists that the liquor-sellers had determined to stand up for their rights.”

After 1882, mentions of the Giesler family disappear from local newspapers. It appears the family moved on, likely to Appanoose County in southern Iowa.

Yet the building itself lingered on for decades. The old Giesler store and home still appeared on a 1931 map, although it had the notation “old” written beside it. By 1940, the building had disappeared from maps.

Today, the once-busy corner—filled long ago with railroad traffic, groceries, conversation, and controversy—is occupied by a large electrical substation.

It’s a reminder that even the most ordinary buildings can hold remarkable stories. Without old photographs, newspapers, and preservation efforts, places like the Giesler store can quietly vanish from community memory altogether.

Every building has a story.

- Researched and written by Pella Historian Bruce Boertje

The Pella Preservation Trust invites you to stop by the historic Tuttle Log Cabin during King's Day in Pella, this Satur...
05/01/2026

The Pella Preservation Trust invites you to stop by the historic Tuttle Log Cabin during King's Day in Pella, this Saturday, May 2. The cabin will be open for tours from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. No charge.

While you're there, take a stroll down the Tuttle Learning Walkway that connects the cabin to beautiful Sunken Garden Park. We hope to see you there!

The cabin will also be open 10:00 to 6:00 daily during Tulip Time, May 7, 8 and 9.

The Pella Preservation Trust invites you to stop by the historic Tuttle Cabin at 608 Lincoln Street and enjoy the tulips...
04/21/2026

The Pella Preservation Trust invites you to stop by the historic Tuttle Cabin at 608 Lincoln Street and enjoy the tulips. While you're there, take a stroll down the Tuttle Walkway that connects the cabin to beautiful Sunken Garden Park.

And if you'd like to see the interior of Tuttle Cabin, it will be open 10:00-6:00 during the three days of Tulip Time. No charge. We hope to see you there!

Special thanks to Master Gardener Duane Rempe for planting and maintaining the tulips!

Coming soon… 👀We’ve had several requests for the history of the old canning factory (later the Heritage Lace building) o...
04/19/2026

Coming soon… 👀

We’ve had several requests for the history of the old canning factory (later the Heritage Lace building) on South Street, so that’ll be our next post.

We’ve also been asked about 635 Franklin Street, now home to Blush by Simple Treasures and formerly Lee’s Variety (and several others over the years).

Stay tuned and get your questions and stories about them ready.

Have a building or spot in Pella you’ve always been curious about? Let us know—we’re always adding to our list!

Remember: Every building has a story!

Part 4 (Final) in our series on 627–629 Franklin Street. And just like that, we arrive at the present.For the past few p...
04/05/2026

Part 4 (Final) in our series on 627–629 Franklin Street. And just like that, we arrive at the present.

For the past few posts, we’ve followed the story of these “Siamese twin” buildings at 627 and 629 Franklin Street—from flour and feed, ci**rs and saloons, to pool halls, cafés, and even Pella’s first motion picture theater.

By 1920, the buildings entered a new phase—one that many in the community still remember.

On the east side, a pool hall continued until 1934, when owner W. P. Koopman remodeled the space and opened The Grill. For the next fifty years, The Grill was a downtown fixture—a place where people gathered for meals, drinks, and conversation—and, over time, drew a more spirited evening crowd, especially college students who made it a regular stop. If you ever stepped inside, you might remember the tradition of “buying” a brick on the interior wall and leaving your name behind. Many of those bricks are still there today, quietly holding those memories in place.

After The Grill closed in 1984, the building took on a new identity as De Pelikaan, operated by Elaine Jaarsma. The space filled with Delft, packaged Dutch foods, and other imported goods—while upstairs, the Antiek Mall gave local antique vendors and artists a place to share their work.

Since 2013, the building has been home to Work of Our Hands, a nonprofit with a mission that stretches far beyond Pella—supporting artisans around the world with fair wages and opportunity. Fittingly, one of the most original storefronts on the square continues to serve a purpose rooted in craftsmanship and community.

Next door, the west building followed its own path. In 1935, the United Food Store moved in, soon becoming Vandevoort’s Grocery. When the business outgrew the space, it led to something new—Van’s Food Market on Main Street, Pella’s first supermarket.

From there, many locals will remember the steady run of restaurants: the Pella Coffee Shop in 1949, the Nederlander Restaurant in 1972, soon followed by George’s Pizza & Steakhouse in 1974, and finally, today’s Cellar Peanut Pub, which has carried the tradition forward since 2016.

Through it all—through changing owners, changing businesses, and changing times—these buildings have remained.

For 135 years, they’ve stood on Franklin Street, adapting to each new generation while holding onto the character that makes downtown Pella feel like… Pella.

And that’s really the point. Buildings like this aren’t just brick and mortar. They’re memory keepers. They hold the stories of everyday life—where people worked, gathered, celebrated, and built community. When we preserve places like this, we’re not freezing them in time—we’re allowing their stories to continue.

As Herman Rietveld once predicted, this building would stand for 100 years. He was right.

And thanks to continued care and appreciation, it’s still standing—and still serving Pella—well beyond that promise.

Now we’d love to hear from you: What do you remember about these buildings over the years?

- Researched and written by Pella Historian Bruce Boertje

Part 3 in a series on the history of 627–629 Franklin Street:We’ve been exploring the story behind the double building a...
03/22/2026

Part 3 in a series on the history of 627–629 Franklin Street:

We’ve been exploring the story behind the double building at 627 and 629 Franklin Street—today home to Work of Our Hands and the Cellar Peanut Pub. When we last left the building, its original occupants had already begun to move on, and a new chapter was beginning.

Although this series has focused on one building, it also offers a window into the broader story of Pella at the turn of the twentieth century.

By the mid-1890s, both original figures connected to the east building had shifted their attention elsewhere. Herman Rietveld, always drawn to larger ventures, had moved on to new projects, while Charles Cole relocated the “Gold Medal” Flour Store business further east on the block less than three years after construction.

For a time, the east half of the building appears to have stood vacant. There is little documentation of ground-floor tenants between 1894 and 1898. Upstairs, however, activity continued.
Two successive newspapers were printed in the upper rooms during those years, ending in 1901. (The same year, Pella’s primary paper, the Pella Blade, was renamed the Pella Chronicle, which continued in operation until 2019.) Rietveld, in particular, had a strong interest in newspapers and often incorporated upstairs space for them into his buildings.

And while newspapers came and went, another upstairs enterprise was quietly at work. During these years, the Washtella Cigar Factory was also operating in the building, with workers turning out ci**rs day after day—another layer of industry unfolding above the storefronts.

The west half of the building remained more active. Henry J. van Vliet’s saloon, often accompanied by a billiard hall or pool room, continued operating there into the early 1900s.

But running a saloon in Iowa at the time was no simple matter.
Despite a statewide prohibition on alcohol sales, the Mulct Law allowed saloons to operate by paying a substantial tax—$800 per year in 1897. Even then, businesses could be shut down if nearby residents objected. As a result, many establishments operated under shifting identities, sometimes presenting themselves as “temperance” billiard parlors in order to remain open.

Legal challenges were common. Owners were frequently brought to court over accusations ranging from selling alcohol to minors to fights among patrons. In 1905, all three of Pella’s saloons were temporarily closed for such violations—though a legal loophole allowed them to reopen within a week by simply replacing their managers. Around the same time, the mayor ordered saloonkeepers to remove all empty beer kegs and cases from sidewalks, giving the public assurances that there was some regulation of saloons.

By 1902, van Vliet had moved his operation to a new location at the northwest corner of Franklin and East First Streets, where Cutting Edge stands today.

And with that move, the building at 627–629 Franklin Street entered yet another phase.

A new figure stepped into the story: Eugene Dennis.
Dennis had lived a life that already spanned much of nineteenth-century America. Born in New Jersey in 1846, he enlisted at age sixteen as a drummer in the Union Army during the Civil War. He saw action at battles such as Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville before being mustered out after his required nine months of service.

In the years that followed, he came west to Iowa, eventually farming south of Pella near Harvey for three decades. Around 1900, he “retired” to town—but retirement, in this case, merely meant changing occupations.

In 1902, Dennis purchased the east half of the Franklin Street building.

The following year, Sam Cole—brother of Charles from the flour store—opened a drug store in the space. But Dennis had additional plans for the building as well.

Upstairs, he created a private billiard room known as the Franklin Club Parlors. This was no ordinary pool hall. The space was designed to be refined and respectable, requiring membership for entry and even advertised as suitable for “wives and daughters.” With one billiard table and four pool tables, it was described at its opening as “more like a parlor than a billiard room.”

For a brief time, one can imagine the upstairs filled not with the rough atmosphere often associated with pool halls, but with quiet conversation, careful games, and an air of respectability.

But the venture was short-lived. Within five months, the space was being advertised for rent. When no tenant appeared, Dennis reopened it to the public as a standard temperance pool room.

By 1906, after the Cole Drug Store relocated, Dennis moved his pool operation to the ground floor. Over time, the space appears to have expanded beyond simple billiards.
Advertisements placed by Dennis in the Des Moines Register in the year before his death in 1916 show that he was trying to sell a wide range of equipment—not only billiard and pool tables, but even a bowling alley and an automatic baseball device—suggesting that the building may have housed a variety of amusements over the years.

Three years later, Dennis and his wife converted the upstairs into an apartment and made it their home. Dennis would live there until his death in 1916.

Meanwhile, the west half of the building continued its own series of transformations.

After van Vliet’s departure, the space operated as a billiard parlor under Bobzin and Johnson, with Carson Bobzin eventually buying out his partner. Ever the entrepreneur, Bobzin also owned a traveling merry-go-round. Every summer, he would leave town for weeks at a time to operate it at county fairs.

In 1907, Bobzin closed his business and moved to Newton.
What came next marked a brief but important moment in Pella’s history.

The Electric Palace, Pella’s first motion picture theater, opened in the building. Eugene Dennis took the opportunity to add his own modernization to the street, replacing the wooden boardwalk out front with a concrete sidewalk.

Though short-lived in this location, the Electric Palace introduced new entertainment to the community. Within two months, the theater was forced to close due to insurance concerns, but after acquiring a new projector, it reopened briefly before moving to a new, purpose-built building farther west on Franklin Street—the structure that today serves as the entrance to Jaarsma Bakery.

Even in its short stay, the Electric Palace signaled a shift in how people gathered and spent their leisure time.

After the theater moved out, Eugene Dennis expanded his holdings and purchased the west half of the building as well.
He and his wife opened the Jersey Café in the east building, adding yet another layer to the building’s evolving identity. But stability remained elusive.

Over the next few years, a series of short-lived businesses came and went. The Kandy Kitchen, opened in 1912 by two men from Knoxville, lasted less than a year. One proprietor abruptly left town, mailing the keys back to Dennis. Two months later, his partner—who had reopened the business—followed suit, also departing for “parts unknown,” leaving Dennis to absorb the loss.

In a small town, business ventures could be unpredictable.
By the mid-1910s, the building once again shifted direction. In 1916, Alex De Boer’s Harness Shop moved into the west half, bringing with it a more stable, trade-based business. Across the building, Dennis’s son Charley continued operating the pool hall, carrying on the family’s involvement in the property.

In 1920, new ownership and management marked yet another transition. Rus Van Zante purchased the west half of the building, while W. P. Koopmans took over operation of the pool room in the east half.

After decades of constant change—saloons, newspapers, pool halls, cafés, candy shops, and even a movie theater—the building had become something more than a single-purpose structure.

It had become a reflection of the community itself.

The next time you walk down Franklin Street, take a moment to look up at these buildings. The walls may be quiet, but the stories they hold are anything but.

Buildings like this remind us that the places we pass every day are layered with history—of businesses, ambitions, friendships, and community life. Preserving them ensures those stories remain visible, connecting one generation of Pella residents to the next.

And this story is not finished.

In our next post, we’ll continue exploring how this building evolved through the twentieth century—and how it eventually became the place many of us recognize today.

- Researched and written by Pella Historian Bruce Boertje

Part 2 in a series on the history of 627–629 Franklin Street.If you read our last post about the early history of the br...
03/15/2026

Part 2 in a series on the history of 627–629 Franklin Street.

If you read our last post about the early history of the brick double building at 627 and 629 Franklin Street—today home to Work of Our Hands and the Cellar Peanut Pub—you may remember that the building opened in late 1891 with Rietveld & Cole’s “Gold Medal” Flour Store occupying the ground floor. It’s a building many people walk past every day while visiting the square, often without realizing just how many stories are hidden inside its brick walls.

The two men behind that business, Charles Cole and Herman Rietveld, would each leave lasting marks on the history of Pella.

Their partnership began in 1890 but lasted only a few years. By 1893 the business arrangement dissolved, and Cole continued operating the flour, feed, and seed trade on his own. The store soon moved two doors east into a smaller wood-frame building at 621 Franklin Street, where the Clover Leaf on Franklin restaurant stands today. From there Cole continued in the grain and feed business for decades, finally retiring in the 1940s.

But Cole’s most lasting contribution to Pella came even later.
When he died at the remarkable age of ninety-nine in 1947, Cole donated three entire rooms filled with local newspapers to Central College, where he had studied as a young man in the 1860s. Those newspapers were eventually preserved, scanned, and made available to the public. Today they form the basis of the searchable online archive many people use to explore Pella’s past.

In fact, many of the newspaper notices used in researching the history of this building came directly from that very collection. In a sense, Charles Cole helped preserve the very sources that now allow us to tell the story of the building he once helped create.

Without Cole’s decision to preserve those papers, much of this story—and countless others—would likely have been lost to time.

While Cole focused on the flour and feed business, his partner Herman Rietveld seemed to be involved in nearly every ambitious project underway in Pella during the 1890s.

Rietveld’s primary work was helping his father, Wiggert Rietveld, manage the Pella Brick and Drain Tile Factorythat they owned, located in what is now Caldwell Park. The company produced many of the bricks used in the wave of construction that reshaped downtown Pella during those years.

In 1892, within months of opening the flour store in the new Franklin Street building, Herman was already proposing ways to modernize the town. One of his early ideas was to pave downtown streets with brick—stretching all the way to the railroad depot, which at that time stood near what is today the former Heritage Lace building on South Street. It was a forward-looking idea that would have used many of his bricks, though he was decades ahead of his time. It wasn’t until 1914 that Pella streets began to be paved.

At the same time, he was investing heavily in new buildings along Franklin Street. In 1892 he purchased the lot just west of the Peanut Pub, where the building now housing Iris Coffee would soon be constructed. The structure was originally intended for De Koning Bakery, though that business never came to fruition. Instead, the building later served a variety of uses, including an insurance office and barber shop.

Two years later, in 1894, Herman and his father opened People’s Savings Bank at 637 Franklin Street, in another building he constructed, with Herman serving as its treasurer. When the bank building was first advertised, Rietveld confidently predicted that the solid brick structure would stand for one hundred years. More than a century later, the building still stands on Franklin Street—proof that his confidence in Pella’s brick buildings was well placed.

At the same time, Rietveld was also involved in organizing the Iowa Oil and Mining Company, partnering with several of Pella’s leading businessmen in hopes of developing new industry in the region. Not all of these ventures succeeded, and some ended in disappointment. But there is little doubt that Herman Rietveld’s ambitions reflected a larger vision: he wanted Pella to become a modern and thriving city.

For now, though, we’ll leave the rest of Herman Rietveld’s story for another time. His direct involvement with the building at 627 Franklin Street was already coming to an end.

Meanwhile, the tenants inside the building continued to change.

The Knights of Pythias, who had been meeting in the upstairs hall, soon moved to another location across the street. Their former meeting rooms were taken over by the offices of the Pella Herald newspaper. In 1897 the space was occupied by the Pella Advertiser, which continued publishing there until the paper ceased operation in 1901.

Downstairs, change was also underway. A. J. Beintema, whose basement barbershop had been the first business to open in the building, moved out within the first year. For a time, the main floor even stood vacant.

But by the late 1890s, the building was beginning to take on an entirely different role in downtown life.
Sometime during those years, a new tenant opene
d its doors: the Monarch Billiard Parlor, operated by Herman Bauman.

With the arrival of pool tables and gathering crowds, the building was quietly becoming something new—a place of recreation and social life in the heart of downtown Pella, where evenings were filled with conversation, laughter, and the sharp crack of billiard balls.

Buildings like this remind us that the places we walk past every day are layered with stories—of businesses, ambitions, friendships, and community life. Preserving them allows those stories to remain visible, linking one generation of Pella residents to the next.

The arrival of the Monarch Billiard Parlor was only the beginning. Before long, the Franklin Street building would become known for bowling lanes, pool tables, cafés, saloons, and some of the liveliest gathering places in downtown Pella.

Stay tuned as we continue uncovering the history of 627 and 629 Franklin Street in the next post. We’d love to hear your memories and comments about these buildings.

- Researched and written by Pella Historian Bruce Boertje

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PO Box 1
Pella, IA
50219

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