Hoover library, museum to get $5 million in latest round of Destination Iowa grants

Bill Steiden, Des Moines Register
·3 min read
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An aging Iowa landmark got a boost Friday as Gov. Kim Reynolds announced a $5 million grant for an overhaul of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch.

The grant was the largest of four, totaling $14.1 million, in Reynolds' latest round of Destination Iowa funding. In all, she has designated $100 million the state received from the American Rescue Plan Act for grants to support "transformational projects" that enhance Iowa's quality of life and attractiveness as a career and tourism destination.

Previous recipients have included the planned Field of Dreams stadium in Dyersville, Des Moines elements of the ICON water trails project and a revamp of the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines.

More:Iowa gives $6 million for 'Field of Dreams' TV show, with filming planned in Des Moines metro

Flags fly in front of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa.
Flags fly in front of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum on Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019, at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa.

The Hoover grant will go toward a campaign to raise $20.3 million for renovation of the library and museum. It shares grounds with the National Park Service-managed Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, which includes Hoover's birthplace, his and his wife's graves and other historic structures associated with the 31st president and the town where he was born. But it is a separate institution under the National Archives, receiving substantial support from the Hoover Presidential Foundation, a private nonprofit.

The museum and library, opened in 1962, was last renovated in a 1992 expansion, Director Thomas Schwartz wrote in a February op-ed for the Des Moines Register. Schwartz said the technology installed then, such as tube-style TV screens, is obsolete, and the exhibits also need updating to reflect new scholarship on Hoover's 1929-33 term in office, marked by the onset of the Great Depression.

Schwartz did not immediately respond to a message Friday seeking information about how much money had been raised for the project.

Hoover was the only president born in Iowa, though President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose wife Mamie was a native of Boone, was a frequent visitor. The Hoover library is one of 15 presidential libraries in the National Archives system, including one for President Barack Obama that is under construction in Chicago and another for President Donald Trump that currently exists only online.

More:Coronavirus aid gave Gov. Kim Reynolds unprecedented spending power. How well has she used it?

Other Destination Iowa grants announced Friday were:

  • $4.5 million for Mason City and Cerro Gordo County in connection with an $11.8 million plan to bike trails and improve a campground.

  • $4 million for the Webster County Conservation Board and Fort Dodge to build the $19.9 million Central River District Park and Discovery Center on the Des Moines River.

  • $600,000 to Cinema Paradiso LLC, which is converting an empty building in Davenport into a two-screen cinema to be called The Last Picture House. The cost will be $3.7 million.

The governor's office said the grant program will continue to accept applications until Dec. 31 or when the money runs out.

Bill Steiden is the business and investigative editor for the Register. Reach him at wsteiden@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa's Hoover Presidential Library and Museum gets $5M grant