The Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance focuses on specific preservation concerns as a way to help preserve property types with special significance to Iowans. Barns, Country Schools, and Movie Theatres are buildings that every Iowan knows and loves. Learn about our efforts to preserve them on these pages.
IHPA board member Rod Scott is a strong advocate for preserving Iowa's historic barns. His efforts have resulted in 2005 being declared as "The Year of The Barn and the Family Farm" by Governor Tom Vilsak, a new question being included on the Census of Agriculture regarding the number barns built before 1960, and children across the state learning how to survey their local historic barns. The Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance initiated a barn survey project for Iowa in 2005. The County level survey is a simple photographic/reconnaissance survey that local volunteers can complete with local funds. Learn more about about IHPA's efforts to preserve the "Prairie Cathedral".
IHPA board member William Sherman is the organization's resident expert on country schools and organizes a statewide country school conference each fall, bringing together country school preservationists from across the Midwest. The Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance is dedicated to preserving this an American icon. Be sure to review our Country School museum directory and find out more about how you can help preserve one- and two-room country schools in Iowa.
The Iowa Historic Preservation Alliance is partnering with the State Historic Preservation Office, Main Street Iowa, and the Iowa Tourism Office to learn more about Iowa's movie houses and the state's connections to Hollywood. This will be a multi-year, multi-phase project concentrating primarily on properties built for or associated with the movies before 1970. As the project gets going, IHPA's movie theatre pages will be updated to reflect the results.