Iowana Hotel

Iowa, United States

Open to visitors

The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.

Strollie cannot guarantee access — always check before you travel.

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The Iowana Hotel, a six-story brick structure in Creston, Iowa, was designed by the Chicago architectural firm H.L. Stevens & Company and constructed between 1919 and 1920 as part of a wave of fireproof, modern hotels that reached Iowa's secondary markets in the 1910s and 1920s. Built by a group of local businessmen forming the Hotel Investment Company, the building was strategically positioned to serve travelers on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, whose divisional headquarters made Creston a transit hub. The structure, measuring 80 by 66 feet with an annex, exemplifies the Early Commercial style with restrained ornamentation: elliptical-arched first-floor windows feature cast stone detailing, while the upper facade is marked by a modified entablature incorporating brick-framed windows and stucco panels beneath a cast stone cornice. The hotel served as Creston's primary lodging until the late 1950s, when highway motels and declining rail travel diminished its role. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, the building has since been converted to apartments.