Rising 172 feet and 12 stories over you, this is the Hippee Building in downtown Des Moines. Known also as the Southern Surety Building, the Savings and Loan Building, and the Midland Building, it was completed in 1913 by George B. Hippee. His father, George M. Hippee, was one of the first merchants in Des Moines, and George B. went on to develop the city's first interurban railway, which connected Des Moines to other communities in central Iowa.
The Hippee was designed by the Des Moines architectural firm of Sawyer and Watrous in the Early Commercial style, and at the time of its completion it stood as Iowa's tallest skyscraper. For many decades it served as an office building, until the Aparium Hotel Group of Chicago acquired it in 2017 and began converting the structure into a 138-room hotel. The building's historic significance was recognized when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
Picture George B. Hippee's 172-foot tower rising as Iowa's tallest skyscraper in 1913, its Early Commercial lines still framing these downtown streets.