Resources within Reach - State Historical Society of Iowa

verge of filing for unincorporated status as they no longer have a viable population topay the current expenses of being incorporated.Within cities the situation is different. Inability to preserve an obsolete or abandonedplace proves to be less a threat than development pressure. Too often a sound historicproperty simply stands in the way of some new scheme for the land. Commercial growthexpands into the surrounding ring of older churches, fraternal, and other institutionalbuildings, and then it moves into residential areas. This is especially true along majorroads through the city where roadside commerce flourishes.Further jeopardizing chances for preservation are outdated or inappropriate buildingcodes that straightjacket possibilities for development of existing buildings. Join thistogether with lack of financial incentives for rehabilitating historic buildings, such asadequate state tax credits, and the scales are weighted against retaining existinghistoric buildings and favorable to replacement through new construction.We have now mentioned certain larger economic developments rippling throughIowa’s economy that endanger historic properties. Another on the cultural side deservesmention. Many Iowans tend to ignore their history because they think the state does nothave much of one. Instead they content themselves with euphemisms like Iowans aresimply modest and unassuming about their past. Circumstances of history give somecredence to this view. After all, Iowa is surrounded by big nearby cities—Chicago, St.Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and Minneapolis—that in some measure have envelopedand made Iowa part of their hinterlands of influence in sports, culture, and economy.Seen in this light, Iowa might seem relegated to little more than a backwater colony ofmore interesting adjacent states. This, in the eyes of some, might seem to leave itlacking an identity outside of a middling role in the regional or national story and an areaone travels through on the way to somewhere else. To this way of thinking, however,lots of Iowans disagree.RESOURCES ON RECORDSurveys and InventoriesSince the beginnings of organized historic preservation activity during the mid-1970s, many historic and prehistoric properties have been surveyed and recorded.Testifying to the large body of information collected are the cumulative totals of reportsidentified in two databases of the State Historic Preservation Office at the StateHistorical Society of Iowa. As of August 2005 there were 11,488 report entries for Iowain the National Archeological Data Base (NADB). With regard to history-architecturalstudies, 1,234 report entries are contained in the Historic-Architectural Data Base(HADB). Copies of each report are contained in the files of the State HistoricPreservation Office.In terms of sheer numbers of individual properties identified in our statewideinventories, the database for historic-architectural properties contains 111,406 entries.Archeological sites entered in the database administered by the University of Iowa’sOffice of State Archaeologist comprise about 24,000 entries.Resources within Reach: Iowa’s Statewide Historic Preservation Plan 43