Vintage Photos: Iowa City Street Scenes In The ’60s & ’70s – Vintage Cars and My Old Haunts Being Demolished Thanks To Urban Renewal

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– Posted on June 3, 2025

I accidentally stumbled into a trove of old photos of downtown Iowa City, most of them from the years 1970-1976, which perfectly match the years I lived there a second time as a very carefree young guy. Most are from a collection at the Iowa City Public Library and were made to document the rather extensive urban renewal project that was then just getting under way, and which involved tearing down many blocks of old buildings and houses. I watched all of this happen in real time, and a number of favorite haunts of mine went the way of the wrecking ball.

This is a block of Dubuque Street in the heart of downtown, and this block was one of a few that was spared and still exists. As to the cars, I rather doubt it, although a lot of Mustangs did survive. A ’69 Impala convertible? Maybe. An AMC Matador wagon? Not so likely.

 

This is the next block east on Dubuque Street, something of the main street in town. The Hotel Jefferson, long the tallest building in town, is seen in both shots. It had been taken over by the University of Iowa by then as an office building. It’s a bit hard to make out, but a few doors this way is the Best Steak House, where I got my first job after returning to IC in February of 1971. And that green Plymouth Fury coupe in the foreground will be seen at least one more time.

Here’s a better shot of the Best Steak House. The Filet Mignon meal was $2.09, as I remember all too well. It was owned by a Greek guy and everyone who worked there except for me were all Greeks.  This half block would soon be gone, but the Best Steak House relocated to larger digs a block away.

 

 

Back in the early ’70s, the parking lot at Penney’s, then the only “modern” store in downtown, having replaced an older building some years earlier. Another old building is in the process of coming down to the right. You will note a nice mixture of cars, as the locals still favored big American sleds but folks connected to the university were very much early import adopters. There’s a red Datsun 610 coupe three cars past the tired ’60 Ford.

This old building coming down was not technically a part of the city urban renewal project, but the University’s ongoing expansion. In this case it was the East Hall. A Corolla and an early Capri share the scene with a Toronado and a ’67 Ford Galaxie 500.

Here’s another shot of that, with different cars, including an Olds Cutlass coupe and a big Buick coupe.

And one more of East Hall, this time with a Datsun 1200 coupe and a Volvo 122 along with a complement of  American iron.

East Clinton Street. The block on the left edge is already empty, and that building on the far right corner, the former Odd Fellows Lodge, is one of the next to go. A VW cabriolet is behind a Datsun 240Z. Parked on the right is ’69 or ’70 Ford Ranch Wagon, a Vega, Datsun 510, ’68 Chevy, and a similar vintage Dart. A ’69 or ’70 Montego si across the street in front of a “bumpside” Ford pickup, likely an F100 4×4. Further back is a post-’68 orange VW Beetle, but I’m struggling a bit with the low, swoopy car behind it. An Opel GT is my best guess.

This older picture of it slipped in somehow. There’s a Renault Dauphine in front of that ’64 Dodge. And a ’61 Plymouth is on the right.

And one more shot of it, this time with a ’63 Rambler Classic between the Torino and ’68 LTD. That Pittsburg Paint and Glass store is where I would buy materials when I picked up a painting odd-job. I remember an old guy wanted just one side of his old 2-story house painted. After I did it, he then wanted another side. Eventually it was all the sides. I would have charged him less for the whole house upfront.

There it goes…behind a ’68 Torino Squire wagon.

Here’s the Burger Chef…before. I ate there a few times, but it wasn’t my favorite burger place. Another post-’68 beetle and ’69 or ’70 Mercury.

And in the process of coming down..

The Southwest corner of College and Clinton Streets. A tire store, and the offices for the concrete company. The reality is that although urban renewal was painful, ugly and partly perhaps unnecessary, these kinds of business and many others were either failing or moving to new larger facilities outside of the downtown area.

There’s a ’71 0r ’72 Pinto followed by a ’70 Impala, a ’62 Bel Air a ’66 or so Falcon 2-door and a Vega. On the near side is a Volvo 122 and a Maverick.

East College Street, 200-Block. Lots of cars here, including a gen1 Monte Carlo, a Vega hatchback, a ’68 or so Falcon, a ’71 or ’72 Beetle, a ’68 or ’69 Beetle, and a Buick? In the street is a rather unusual Ranchero with a roof rack on the cab. That’s a first. Parked on the other side is a ’69 Fury that could well be the one I drove to the Rockies with two friends on a memorable trip in the summer of 1972. Behind it is a ’70 Chevelle Malibu coupe, a ’72 Torino wagon, a ’69? Olds 88, a ’70 Dodge Polara, a ’69 Impala and a ’73 or so Chevy K5 Blazer.

South Clinton St. 100 Block:  Not a lot of car spotting, but that closer Schlitz sign is for the Vine, a favorite watering hole, thanks to a fake ID. The memories made there…That whole block went down, and is now home of the Old Capitol Mall. Looks like a ’69 Pontiac Catalina with its trunk open.

100 Block S. Clinton St, circa 1966.  A 1960 Imperial leads the parade of parked cars, followed by a ’64 Galaxie 500 sedan, a ’65 Impala and a ’64 Plymouth.

100 Block So. Clinton St (other side) circa 1966: A ’56 Chevy wagon in the street next to a Rambler, and parked on the far side are a ’64 Impala sedan, a ’63 Catalina, a ’64 Ford Custom, a ’64? Olds with what looks like another right on its tail, and a ’64 Dodge 880 in the rear.

South Clinton St, 000 Block: A store being rebuilt after a fire. The Airliner to the right was a long-time popular bar with the University athletic crowd. There’s a Triumph GT-6 in front of an extended-body Econoline.

Iowa Avenue, looking East: This photo shows the old COD Steam Laundry building, which was the site of the first Iowa City Public Library– housed on the second floor. By this time, the COD Steam Laundry was now a favorite bar and music/dance venue, thanks to its large old wooden floor. This is where I met Kim, the girl that had the Buick Wildcat I wrote about. A young woman I knew ran a little deli in the front at lunchtime.

Although a large number of old brick and wooden buildings were torn down, some of the old houses in the urban renewal district were moved. Here’s a group of three or so coming down Dubuque Street. I actually met the guy who was doing this, at a party at one of his moved houses that he rented out. I was quite intrigued  by that, and I ended up doing essentially the same thing some 25 years later in Eugene, moving houses the University of Oregon was going to otherwise tear down. It’s funny how certain concepts resonate and stick with one.

Here they are rolling by with the old Capitol in the background. Iowa City had been selected as the territorial capital in 1839, but it did not officially become the capital city until 1841; after construction on the capitol building had begun. The capitol building was completed in 1842, and the last four territorial legislatures and the first six Iowa General Assemblies met there until 1857, when the state capital was moved to Des Moines. It then became the center of the fledgling University of Iowa campus. The University had been founded in 1847.

The traffic policeman is riding a Harley Davidson trike, which once very common for these kinds of applications.

The second house, which is listing a bit precariously, is being hauled by a compact Mack MB model, produced between 1963 and 1978. The house behind is being pulled by a 1950s GMC HD truck.

These houses were coming from an area to the south of downtown, where several blocks of them were torn down. I had a friend who lived in one of them and was moving to Vermont, in part because he had been given a final move out date and a few months’ rent for the trouble. But the house hadn’t been totally shut down, one tenant in an upstairs apartment was still there. So I moved into his apartment and lived there, rent free! Until a about two months later two guys from the city knocking sharply on the door woke me up one morning. They were not amused. And they gave me until 5PM to be out.

East Washington Street, 200 block: My last GF in Iowa City, the one I moved to California with, lived with a roommate in an apartment above the Englert Theater. In that apartment was a heavy fire-proof door that opened directly unto the balcony of the movie theater. Needless to say, we availed ourselves of that amenity on a number occasions. We’d open the door carefully to make sure nobody was sitting in the back rows of it. Hardly anyone ever sat in the balcony, so we got away with it.

Is that the same green Fury fuselage coupe we saw earlier?

Corner of South Clinton and Washington Streets: That could well be me driving that Iowa City Transit bus. I drove for them in my last year in Iowa City, from the fall of 1975 to the late summer of ’76, when I escaped to San Diego. This is where all the buses converged every half hour, on both sides of both of these streets, which formed the corner of the University Pentacrest (on the left). The original fleet bought in 1971 consisted of 12 GM T6H4521A buses (6V-71 powered), including these two seen here. There were also two new GM T8H5307A buses (8v-71 powered), bought just shortly before I joined them.

 

East College Street, 100 block:  We wore shoes from Kinney Shoes, back when we were there as kids. And I had a friend that lived in an apartment above Osco Drug. There’s a 1970 Chevy parked at the snowy curb.

This is an older shot, from 1963, when Bremer’s Clothing store, the biggest of its kind in Iowa City, had a fire. I had a bit of a run-in at Bremers. After I first arrived back in Iowa City, in February of 1971, I was broke and homeless, sleeping in a dirt floor basement. I really needed a pair of socks, so I shoplifted one pair of basic men’s white cotton socks from Bremers. As I walked out the door, a young kid/security officer grabbed me by the shoulder. I should have pulled away and run, but my Catholic upbringing kicked in.

They called the police, who put me in a cell overnight before going in front of a judge the next morning. He charged me a $35 fine (about $3500 in today’s money). I had to call my brother back in Towson to sell my beloved stereo amplifier in order to raise the money.

Can you imagine the same thing happening today? Over a pair of socks? Times have changed. Folks wheel out carts full of expensive tools at HD and the employees are not allowed to do anything.

I’m not saying I wasn’t wrong, but nowadays homeless persons can pickup all the basic living essentials, clothing, tents, sleeping bags and food readily at various non-profits, food pantries and such. Not so back then. It was a lot harsher, and I was hungry almost all the time. Jobs were not easy to get, they wouldn’t give you food stamps unless you could prove you had a home with a full kitchen (or access to one). I was very glad to get the job as busboy/dishwasher at the Best Steak House, where I could eat free too.

Corner of E. Washington and Dubuque Streets: One of the main banks in town. And a ’66 LTD followed by a ’67 Cadillac 4-door hardtop.

Corner of Dubuque and Washington Streets: A freshly cleared building. And a slew of cars, including what looks to be a ’73 Caprice driver’s ed car on the left. That’s a pretty nice car for that purpose.

Here’s the same corner after it was turned into a little park. That’s a nice early Chevy van, owned by Northwestern Bell.

This fire happened in 1970 not long before I returned to IC, in the building that housed Things, Things, and Things, something of a head shop, a significant counter-cultural institution.

By the time I did return in 1971, it had been totally rebuilt, in a very modern and much larger incarnation. The external steel was COR-TEN, which rusted intentionally on the surface. It was a very hip department store, with clothes, kitchen ware, some furnishings, indoor plants, and a very chic little deli/cafe in the basement. It was the cool place to be and be seen; there was nothing remotely like it in Iowa at the time. A little taste of San Francisco or New York. The owner drove a vintage BMW motorcycle with a sidecar where his chic wife sat, and dressed accordingly, with a leather helmet and long scarf that trailed behind him.

The 000 Block of East Washington: Another building bites the dust. I knew the folks that owned the Bivouac, an Army surplus store that was transitioning to sporting goods.

In order to make room for some of these businesses that were displaced, a temporary mall was created in the 100 Block of S. Clinton street, right in the middle of the street. Here some prefab building units are being craned into place. There’s two Jeep Dispatchers photobombing; one from the USPS and the other a city police unit. Presumably this is what they replaced the old HD trikes with.

This is where the Bivouac was relocated to. In a curious coincidence, I was walking along the sidewalk when this was being built, and who did I see nailing decking boards to the walkways between these unit? Mr. Yoder, the Mennonite farmer I used to stay with in the summers when we lived here in 1960-1965. He struggled to make a living off the farm so he would pick up other work, especially in the winter.

How I used to while away the hours in Epstein’s Book Store. I vividly remember perusing the new book “The Joy of Sex” in considerable detail.

Before we go on, let’s briefly look at Iowa City’s urban renewal project, which was first laid out in 1966, with the areas affected shown on this aerial map. As mentioned earlier, not everything in this area was torn down; a few key central blocks of the most vibrant part of downtown were left, all or in part.

How downtown looked in the 1920s. This must be from before 1926, when they added two stories to the Hotel Jefferson. The 1920s were something of a peak time for many towns, before the Depression and then the postwar expansion outwards, which of course is what weakened the downtowns. That’s what urban renewal was supposed to fix, but it took decades longer than anyone expected.

This aerial phot from 1977, when demolition was finished, shows the many empty blocks. The Jefferson Hotel building, is the tall red brick building a bit right of center. A few blocks to the right are mostly University-owned blocks, so the affected area was mostly to the south.

Another demolition site.

Folks setting up something of a playground for the kids on the bare lots.

But it did eventually happen; Iowa City has a vibrant downtown again, with many new developments, student housing, conference facilities, retail and more. This aerial is from 2019.

This large development, Hieronymus Square, is from 2010. Perhaps the demolition process might have been spread out, over the decades, and developers would have just bought the land and torn down the old buildings when they were ready to put up new ones? Change is an inevitability, Iowa City has had a strong economy for many decades, but making much of the core look like Dresden after WW2 seems a bit harsh.

Let’s get back to a few more street scenes and cars. This is from an unidentified alley, and a fine ’62 Olds Starfire coupe.

Another favorite haunt of mine that got torn down. The hamburgers were made from fresh hamburger, rolled into a ball, plopped on the greasy grill and squashed down with a big long spatula. The ultimate greasy spoon.

I found another source of lots of Iowa City history, a Flickr page titled “Then and Now – Iowa City. Here’s a fine nighttime winter shot with a ’67 Malibu convertible.

This is how I remember it from our first stint in Iowa City; this shot is from 1963. It was hard to imagine then that much of this would be demolished, especially coming from Austria where that doesn’t happen very often.

Little did I know then that 10 years later I would be shacking up with a 6′ tall red-haired woman named Frank in an upstairs apartment in that building behind the tree.

 

There’s a number of twinned images there, of the old and the new. In this case the, what used to be the main hardware store in town.

It looks pretty shabby, but the Capitol was a movie theater. it later got a bit of a makeover and a marquis, but it was always the seediest theater in town.

 

This is one of my childhood haunts, the Lincoln-Mercury-Comet dealer. And it was directly across the street from the Ford dealer. Maybe co-owned?

Two C2 Corvettes parked together. I’m sorry I missed that. I’d have been all over (and under) them.

And here’s the Standard station on Dubuque street that my father always patronized. My first exposure to Paul Bunyon Muffler Man.

Slick House! I lived there once. This beautiful old house overlooking the Iowa River on Clinton Street was across the street from the university president’s mansion, and by this time was a rooming house for a rather disreputable bunch of…eccentrics, crackpots, poets, bikers, hippies and me (and my brother, who joined me here for a few months). We rented and shared that big bedroom on the upper floor on the right. Oh the stories I could tell. For some reason, it was all men, as far as I can remember. Well, no woman in her right mind would want to live there…the shared bathroom! The shared kitchen! Beyond gross. Iowa City’s Animal House, with two Niedermeyers in residence.

The street here ends on the left of the picture, and one has to make the turn. This is exactly the location where a few years later I went into a wild slide in the 40′ transit bus I was driving on a frosty early morning, as I floored the throttle as I hit the brick pavement, which were covered in a very fine layer of ice or frost. Yippie! Fortunately no parked cars were wiped out and I had no passengers on that first 6:15 run in the morning.

I saved the best for last:

When I came across this then and now shot of a snack bar at that Flickr page, I almost fell out of my chair. That’s our Fairlane! And that’s…us! I’m at the window, ordering a strawberry milkshake, hopefully. WTF! What are the odds?

But then I remembered that photo, it’s from our family collection of old snapshots. So how did it get on this Flickr page?

Oh right; I used it once in a CC post. I couldn’t remember which one so I Googled “Iowa City Dairy Sweet” and it came up. I used it way back in 2013 to announce our first CC Meet-Up, which was to be in…Iowa City.

That was a fun get-together; just a few of us: Jim Cavanaugh, Jason Shafer, Tom Klockau, Ed Stembridge, and? I think that was it. But why don’t I have any pictures of it? Hmm…I think I had just got my first smart phone and bungled it up.

Let’s wrap this up with a Then, Then & Now shot – the same location over the years. In the top undated photo a trolley car is turning left (toward the east) from Capitol Street onto College Street, at the Dunkel Hotel. In the middle photograph demolition has begun to clear the way for the future Old Capitol mall, seen in the “Now” photo at bottom.

 

Here’s the links to those two sites with gobs more pictures:

Then and Now – Iowa City

Iowa City Public Library Collection: Urban Renewal

 

Related CC reading:

Auto-Biography: 1969 Plymouth Fury – Somewhere East of Laramie

Auto-Biography: Wildcat!

Auto-Biography: Moving On, To Moving Houses

Auto-Biography: Bus We Must – My Short Career With Iowa City Transit

Auto-Biography: The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxie 500 And Other Rides