Here in the East Village of Des Moines, Iowa, you have reached the Hohberger Building, a historic presence on this commercial block. From here you can feel its age: the building was erected in 1895 and remains one of the few surviving examples of a cast-iron column structure in the city. Picture the rhythm of those columns reaching up through the façade, a structural fashion that once shaped this commercial block.
Its first long-lived retailer was Dockstader & Co., a dry goods store that occupied the ground floor from 1899 to 1915. After a period of vacancy the building was given new life when it was renovated in 1999; today the ground level continues to host retail while the upper floors are filled with offices. The Hohberger Building’s significance was recognized early when it was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and its role in the neighborhood was reaffirmed in 2019 when it became a contributing property in the East Des Moines Commercial Historic District.
Picture Dockstader & Co. filling this ground floor with dry goods, beneath cast-iron columns that still line the East Village storefronts.