Old Homes Tour

The self-guided old homes tour features 14 of Hiawatha’s beautiful turn of the century homes that will help you relive some of the past. The brochure has a map and short history of each house featured. The brochure can be picked up at the Chamber office and several businesses in Hiawatha.

Take a sneak preview of these two examples!

610 Hiawatha – C.W. Wellcome, Hiawatha lumberman, purchased these lots in 1891 and made the family home. This two and a half story weatherboard home has a gable face with sunburst wooden decor and triple multi-pane fixed sash. The shallow bay on the second floor has two double-hung multipane windows with an arched center section. The first floor has a bay window with double-hung side windows and a center single-hung window with art glass transom.

614 Miami – Arriving from Galesburg, Illinois in 1881, Manning Smalley was intent on opening a second bank in Hiawatha. Apparently a man of means, he paid $1000 for the tract on which he built this house in 1882. He was the president of the 1st National Bank from 1881 when it was chartered until 1893 when after some sort of defalcation he assigned his home to the bank and moved to Omaha, Nebraska. This home as a gable roof with bracketed cornice and iron railing. The gable ends have ornate lace trim and the windows have half semi-circular shutters.