# How to hide your mud flood basement



## Starfire (Sep 30, 2022)

That post on the brewery in Kentucky got me looking at pictures of old buildings in Kentucky, which led to pictures of courthouses, somehow there was a several day sidetrack on applied-epistemology.com, then back to landmarkhunter.com, which led to post offices, which led to the history of the Cherokee Nation (more on that in another thread) and other tribal nations in Indian Territory, which led to the Kirkbride buildings to promote healing through architecture, which led to asylums, which led to the Glenwood Iowa Institution for Feeble Minded Children!






It opened as a Civil War Orphan's Home in 1866-1876. Most likely in it's original mud flood state, being used as emergency housing for orphans from both sides of the war.

Then it was closed and reopened as the Iowa Institute for Feeble Minded Children in 1876, as mandated by the Iowa State Congress, and as seen above. This closure would have been when they made safety modifications to make the building usuable, but didn't destroy it's original buried details.

As you can see, the original building became classic mid-American Mud Flood style. Look at the lovely "basement windows" to allow light to come in. There are safe stairways leading up to the "original" porches with arched doorways (modified from balconies and balcony doors). My favorite feature is the buried arch with arched balconies above it to the far right side.

I think the first batch of "feeble minded children" to live here would have been the orphans that didn't want to accept the change in paradigm. After 10 years of reprogramming, the handlers would have known which rebels to keep locked up and which sheep they could sent West on the orphan trains.

The railroad built a spur that crossed the grounds of the institute in 1902, and suddenly there was a "tornado" in 1903 that damaged many buildings. I strongly feel the tornado was exaggerated as an excuse to remodel. The outside people on the train could now see the institute and ask questions. The staff and patients had long ago learned not to ask questions. 

This required repairwork was completed by the time these pictures were taken in 1905.





They skirted the bases of at least four of the buildings at the institute with brick, but left the "basement" windows in place. I imagine they put sills on them to make them appear planned and not buried. It's hard to tell on the small picture. But the arches are not yet bricked over.

In 1941 they changed the name to Glenwood State Hospital School. Probably because the Institute for Feeble Minded Children sounded a bit eugenic...

The next renovation/modernization would have happened some time after that. To me the brickwork and windows feel very late 1960's - early 1970's.










For the third modification you see above they put bricked in archways and porch doorways, and managed to make the buried windows disappear or turn into ventilation and decorative features! The buried arched windows under the front porch are closed in with artistic detail, three little square holes, rather pretty. But they completely tore off my favorite buried arch and balconies to the right.

It's now known as Glenwood Resource Center. The residents live in cottage style housing.

The history of the town of Glenwood is interesting. The Mormons settled there in 1848 and called it Coonville. This was 15ish years before the "Civil War" and the original darker skinned native inhabitants may have still been dominant there, or perhaps the town had a lot of relocated slaves or freedman. Either way, the Mormons didn't stay and moved onto Utah. The name got changed to Glenwood around 1851.

According to centennial.legion.org website:

"The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was completed through Glenwood in 1869. During the late 19th century, the community was widely known as Iowa's center of fruit production, particularly of apples, and it hosted an annual Apple Carnival. Early industries included an iron foundry, an expansive marble and stone works, the Glenwood Creamery, and a large cannery that covered a city block on the east side of Locust Street."

The town also had a nearby grain mill. That seems like a lot of heavy industry for the time and location. I imagine those factories had to be dug out a bit to be usable...


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