Hotel Fort Des Moines, the landmark you are looking at, first opened in 1919 and was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Designed by the prominent Des Moines firm Proudfoot, Bird & Rawson, this eleven‑story building rises 140 feet above the street, with two floors below ground and three elevators that served guests across its levels. The hotel began with local ambition — promoters Richard R. Rollins, Frederick C. Hubbell, Clyde Herring, and Norman M. Wilchinski — and went on to host an extraordinary roll call: twelve United States presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and George H. W. Bush.
Entertainers and world figures passed through as well, from Mae West to Charles Lindbergh and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. In the early 1990s singer Tiny Tim even made the hotel his home for several years. More recently, the property closed to guests on November 13, 2015 for renovations after its sale from Jeff Hunter to Hawkeye Hotels, and has since reopened as a Curio Collection Hilton Worldwide hotel.
Picture presidents and legends passing through these eleven stories above downtown Des Moines.