Old Main is a historic building located on the Iowa Wesleyan University campus in

Mount Pleasant, Iowa Mount Pleasant is a city in and the county seat of Henry County in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 9,274 in the 2020 census, an increase from 8,668 in the 2010 census. It was founded in 1835 by pioneer Presley Saunders. History ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Built in 1854, when James Harlan was the college's president, it is the second building constructed on the campus after Pioneer Hall. It is believed that Old Main was the first genuine collegiate building built in Iowa. The bricks for the building were manufactured locally by Benjamin Franklin Pearson of Keosauqua, Iowa, who also was responsible for some of the building's construction. with The three-story building has modified classical features. It was designed to have classrooms on the first two floors and the library, natural history museum and chapel on the third floor. The building is capped with a

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 ...

with bracketed

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

, and a wooden

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

with a low dome painted gold. The International P.E.O. Sisterhood was founded in the building. It was 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 1973.

References

School buildings completed in 1854 Buildings and structures in Mount Pleasant, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Henry County, Iowa University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa University and college academic buildings in the United States Iowa Wesleyan University {{Iowa-struct-stub