The Cathedral of St. Raphael was completed in 1861 in brick, with the front facade in limestone finished later in 1876. Dubuque is actually an archdiocese, despite being by far a much smaller city than many other metropolitan areas in… Continue Reading
At the corner of West 5th Street and Bluff Street is the Augustine A. Cooper House, a restored Romanesque Revival mansion that is now a bed and breakfast. Cooper was a wagon manufacturer in Dubuque, and his wagons were shipped… Continue Reading
What impresses me about Dubuque is its abundance of successful public spaces; here is Washington Park, which possesses the Post Office on the south side. Designed by James A. Wetmore, it opened in 1934. I strongly suspect this Art-Deco edifice… Continue Reading
Starting in the south at 2nd Street, at the Hotel Julien Dubuque, named after the founder of the City of Dubuque, we head north through the southern part of downtown on Main Street. To the east, much of the old… Continue Reading
Built by a host of Dubuque’s financial giants to create what we would probably now call “Class A Office Space,” the Bank and Insurance, or Fischer, Building, dominates Main Street at the corner of 9th Street. It opened in 1895… Continue Reading
I cut over from Locust Street towards Main Street; like many cities in America, living close to the central business district was once prestigious, before the noise and smoke of the automobile made it less desirable. The incredibly beautiful Second… Continue Reading
Heading south on Locust Street, we cross over 12th Street, and see a nice solid, but smaller Italianate house with accompanying belvedere. Streets head off to the west, beginning their ascent up to the bluffs. Remember, they were originally built… Continue Reading
Heading south on Locust Street from Loras Boulevard (14th Street), we encounter older houses, and more middle class houses, but no less elegant. There are row houses, and also freestanding Italianate houses, such as the one above. As you can… Continue Reading
On the southwest corner of Loras Boulevard (named after one of the many of Dubuque’s universities up the bluffs to the west and what was originally 14th Street) and Locust Street are two of the most beautiful houses in the… Continue Reading
I think Main and Locust streets in Dubuque might have the best preserved row of upper-middle to upper class houses from the 1870s to 1890s in the Midwest. While there are some losses, for the most part, the street wall… Continue Reading