I found some more photos from the vault of my September 2011 trip to northeastern Iowa, and this time it was the town of Dyersville, with a well-preserved main street of Italianate storefronts, many with their original second story turrets intact.
As is typical around the United States, however, when the Twentieth Century rolled around, banks would replace their older buildings with august new Beaux-Arts commissions, such as the German State Bank, below.
But the star of the town is off to the west: the towering twin spires of the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier, an important church in Roman Catholicism.
Cross over the creek going through town, and you are at the basilica.
It is a towering edifice, with two matching spires heavily ornamented. It looks to be a German-style Gothic Revival Hallkirche, where the transepts are either non-existent or de-emphasized.
Thanks for sharing this Chris. What a beautiful little town.
Thank you! I find it fascinating that there is a Basilica-level church in this town–when the vast majority are in major cities in America. It is a huge honor for the town.
Those storefronts remind me of what St. Louis could look like along S. Broadway with some improvements. The variety and architecture of those buildings have that same feel.
I agree. What I like about these small towns is they preserve what St. Louis looked like back in the Nineteenth Century before it was replaced in the early to mid-Twentieth Century.