October 6, 2010 This 1876 schoolhouse in Coralville is open for school and group tours but for individuals by appointment only. It is fully restored and activities include trying to write in Spencerian style, ringing the bell, and using various school materials.
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| We saw a couple of round barns. This is a few miles north of Iowa City, near North Liberty. |
Former home of the Bloom County/Opus creator, Berkeley Breathed. It is not a boarding house now, but almost. It's a housing coop. The link is to an old "People" magazine article, the best I could find in a hurry, in case you want to know more about him or his cartoons. He based many of the people and events on "small town USA", using Iowa City as his physical base (he followed a girlfriend there), as well as using people and places in Iowa City as the inspiration for the cartoon. 
Iowa City was the territorial capital, but when Des Moines was chosen to be the state capital, this building became the first building on what is now the University of Iowa campus. It's part of the museum/historic downtown district and anchors the pentacrest. We tried several times to get in here to see this building and MacBride Hall, whicih houses the Natural History museum, but there was absolutely no parking and we kept hoping we could do better later....we didn't, so we missed out on seeing these buildings and their holdings up close. Guess we'll just have to come back!
One of the neat things about Iowa City and the University is that the entire city is utilized by the university, with dorms, classrooms, labs and medical facilities throughout the city. As a result the city and university seem to be very integrated and boy! is this town football crazy! They probably support all of the sports teams, but it's football season now and everywhere you look businesses are advertising specials for game day, or discounts if you wear hawkeye gear, etc.
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