University planning entrepreneurial center but future of the historic home still undetermined
KCJJ Staff
02/19/19
With the future of the Sanxay-Gilmore House in Iowa City still undetermined, the University of Iowa is asking to move forward with razing two nearby homes to make way for a planned entrepreneurial center.
The UI will ask the Board of Regents during its meeting in Ames next week to approve the razing of the houses at 120 and 124 North Clinton Street. The houses, built in the early 20th century, have been used as student rooming houses for the last several years but officials say they have fallen into disrepair and no longer meet the city’s building code.
The UI recently demolished the house immediately to the north of these houses. Officials note in the request the properties have not been deemed historically significant.
Those structures sit across the street from the Pappajohn Business Building and they abut the historic Sanxay-Gilmore House, which the UI is also eyeing but which has historic significance as the oldest home in downtown Iowa City; it was built in 1843.
The city, the university, and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church – which owned the Sanxay-Gilmore House until gifting it to the city – are still determining the next steps for that house. City officials have estimated it will cost at least $583,000 to move it.
A cost estimate for razing the two other homes is not included in Regents’ documents.
