The Kingman Place Historic District is located in

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

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. The historic district contains a well-preserved collection of

American Foursquare The American Foursquare (also American Four Square or American 4 Square) is an American house vernacular under the Arts and Crafts style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the ...

houses that were built starting in 1902 and continued until 1915. It has been 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 ...

since 2000. It was part of ''The Bungalow and Square House--Des Moines Residential Growth and Development MPS''.

History

The historic district lies north of Kingman Boulevard and south of Cottage Grove Avenue, between 27th Street on the east and 31st Street on the west. It is composed of three full blocks and parts of two others in the Kingman and University plats. The plats are unique in Des Moines as they are oriented east to west as opposed to north to south. with Because it developed within a few years it is composed of similar foursquare house plans. It has very few

bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

s, which were also being built in Des Moines at the same time. Cottage Grove Avenue was named in 1872 and the Cottage Grove Addition was platted that autumn. It was located between Cottage Grove and University Avenues and 21st and 23rd Streets. Nothing was developed until the University Land Company organized in 1881 and founded

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the same year. Houses began to be built in the area in the 1880s. A hack line was established at the same time and

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

lines were extended the following decade. The Kingman Addition was platted by the Vermont Land Company in 1889. Brick paving on Cottage Grove began in 1889 and the area was annexed to the city of Des Moines a year later. The paving of Cottage Grove was extended west to 34th Street in 1891 and sewer lines were added in 1894. No houses were added to the district until after 1900. Explosive growth started in University Place in 1904. One of Des Moines’ first suburban banks was built in the area the same year. Around 200 houses were built in the area between 1900 and 1910. There were three definitive house building spurts in the Kingman Place Historic District in 1905, 1910 and 1915. The

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

subtype of the foursquare house plan was dominate in 1905 and receded significantly by 1915, when front and side

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 ...

d roofs took over.

Architecture

The Kingman Place Historic District is primarily composed of three subtypes of square house plans. Of the 66 square house plans in the district, 34 are four squares, 22 follow the front gable plan and 10 are side gable houses. The rest of the houses in the district represent a number of other styles, including the bungalow. Two of the houses are known as foursquare look-alikes that were built earlier from the others and feature

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

architectural elements such as a wrap-around porch. Their room counts were also higher than eight, which are typical of the four squares.

References

{{Polk, IA HD Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Historic districts in Des Moines, Iowa Houses in Des Moines, Iowa American Foursquare architecture in Iowa Bungalow architecture in Iowa