I combined several historic mansion districts from the turn of the century including Linden Historic Heights District, Greenwood, and Terrace Hill Historic District. They are all similar in character and urban design. I used Grand as the northern border, MLK Highway as the eastern, Greenwood park as the eastern, and the railroad tracks as the southern. While I used Grand as the official north border I still consider Ingersoll, a block north of here to be the business district serving the neighborhood.
The Terrace Hill neighborhood is the closest to Downtown and contains the oldest housing stock from the late 19th century including many well preserved Victorian Era mansions. The Terrace Hill mansion, official residence of the Governor of Iowa is also here. Further west in the Linden Heights and Greenwood neighborhoods the housing stock is a mix of early 20th century mansions spanning each decade until the 1950s. Greenwood Park in the western edge of this evaluation area is one of the city’s oldest and most beloved parks. The neighborhood is also one of Des Moines hilliest areas whose terrain lends itself well to grand trees and curvilinear streets.
While the district has amazing historic mansions the density is very low for an urban area. The northern edge of the district along Grand and Ingersoll is what allows the district to still function as a relatively urban and semi-walkable neighborhood. Grand host larger condos and apartment buildings from the early-mid 20th century and Ingersoll is a decent urban commercial district seeing a excellent recent streetscaping project and lots of quality urban in-fill close to Dwtn. The district has a wonderful array of housing options and price points and quality schools as well. What the neighborhood really needs to become a top tier urban district is more people and mixed-use projects, consistent side walks in the residential areas, better racial and economic diversity, more public transit options, and more retail amenities.
Click here to view my Greenwood Historic District Album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
- Very convenient access to Dwtn being about 2 mile away. But some points of the neighborhood have limited access via transit and bike given the hills.
- Good generational diversity.
- Gorgeous historic mansions.
- Very safe community. Really no blight.
- Decent school access including a walkable public school for every grade. Decent ratings as well.
- Good # of rentals mostly concentrated along Grand. 1-beds rent anywhere btwn $700-1.5K, 2-beds btwn $900 and 1.5K. Only a handful of 3-beds.
- Good # of for sale condos concentrated also along Grand selling anywhere from 100K-450K, great variety of 2-beds selling anywhere btwn 150K-1M including condos, townhouses, and SF homes. 3 & 4 beds sell anywhere btwn 230K-1.5M with a decent # of condos/townhouses mixed in with the SF homes.
- Good parks including the moderately sized Greenwood-Ashworth Park with a rose garden and the expansive Water Works Park along the Raccoon River with a rec trail running alongside it.
- Excellent Tree canopy.
- Most cultural amenities are along Ingeroll Ave the northern border of the neighborhood. Good food and beverage amenities, a couple art galleries and a couple night clubs. Several historic homes open for tours through the neighborhood.
- While Ingersoll is semi-autocentric an excellent streetscaping project is underway greatly improving the urban design. More and more urban in-fill buildings are being built generally moving west from Dwtn.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Very low density for an urban district.
* About half of the streets don’t have sidewalks but when they do they typically have ADA standard curb cuts. Consistent sidewalk and ADA infrastructure on Grand Ave.
* Public transit is decent along the blocks closest to Grand but quickly drop off the further south one goes.
* No bike infrastructure in the district but there is a good bike line along Ingersoll along with a couple of bike stations on it.
* The streets connect and there are no cul du sacs here but very curvilinear roads with long complicated blocks.
* Racial diversity is pretty low as this is ~ an 85% White neighborhood. Economic diversity is similar.
* Retail amenities are also concentrated along Ingeroll but a bit limited. This includes a drug store, office max, supermarket a block north of the neighborhood, several banks, a couple boutiques, a couple florists, a couple dessert joints & gyms.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 