Historic Grinnell

Historic Grinnell. . , Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, a native of Vermont, was the person to whom Horace Greeley gave his famous advice “Go West, young man, go West.” Grinnell took that advice and in 1854 founded the city that now bears his name. A leader in state government, Grinnell in 1857 chaired the legislative committee that planed Iowa’s system of public education from the elementary through university level. A foe of slavery, he gave shelter in 1859 to the fiery abolitionist John Brown after Brown’s anti-slavery raids in Kansas and Missouri. J.B. Grinnell also made his community a stop on the Underground Railroad, with about 1,000 freed slaves passing through the time in the years before the Civil War. After a devastating tornado struck Grinnell, in 1882, and again a fire destroyed much of the business district in 1889, the founder led the rebuilding efforts that resulted in a renewed community., The city is the home of Grinnell College, a private coeducational liberal arts institution founded as Iowa College in 1846. The college, which moved to Grinnell in 1856, was the first institution west of the Mississippi River to grant a bachelor’s degree; and it was also the first college in the country to have an undergraduate department of political science., It made sports history in 1889 when it was the site of the first intercollegiate football game played west of the Mississippi River. The score: Grinnell 24 - University of Iowa 0., The college’s students have included; Harry Hopkins ’12, chief aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt; James Norman Hall ’10, co-author of Mutiny on the Bounty; writer Ruth Suckow ’14; actor Gary Cooper ’26; Olympic gold medalist Morgan Taylor ’26; and Robert Noyce ’49, inventor of the process that made the microchip, and therefore the modern electronics revolution. Another resident of the city was Arthur W. Radford, World War II admiral and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1953-57., Grinnell has many excellent examples of 19th century residential, commercial and institutional architecture, with several structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city’s most notable building is the Brenton National Bank of Poweshiek County, originally the Merchants National Bank of Grinnell. Built in 1914 and designed by Louis Sullivan, the structure is nationally recognized as a prime example of Prairie School architecture., Donated by Grinnell College.