TOWN CLOCK PLAZA

Poster celebrating the development of the Town Clock Plaza. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Photo courtesy: Jim Massey

TOWN CLOCK PLAZA. Iowa's first open tree-lined pedestrian mall. Named for its most distinctive feature, the TOWN CLOCK, Dubuque's downtown plaza was dedicated in 1971 by George Romney, then head of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Deteriorating buildings along Main and Iowa STREETS were torn down. Planners declared the result would be a center for business, finance, government, and culture.

On April 12, 1973, Dubuque MAYOR Joseph BITTER accepted an award given by Mrs. Pat Nixon on behalf of the American Association of Nurserymen. The award recognized the excellence in design and landscaping of the plaza. The site, featured in national publications, had its southern two blocks planted by Rettenberger Nursery Tree and landscape Service while the northern two blocks were planted by Nauman Nursery. The award given at the White House followed by one year an award presented by the American Association of landscape Architects to Barton-Aschman of Chicago for its design of the plaza.

A minimum of sixty-five businesses was displaced by the urban renewal. Thirty-four went out of business, twenty-seven stayed in the Town Clock Plaza, twelve moved to the west edge of town, and the others relocated to a variety of places, mostly in the downtown area. The fact that the project did not develop as planned was blamed by some on the lack of an expressway running along the riverfront as planned by the architects.

Promotional packet for the dedication and grand opening of the Town Clock Plaza. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Reverse of promotional packet. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding

Led by community leaders like John Butler, efforts were made by the 1990s to convince the City to reopen Main Street to traffic. On August 2, 2002 the street was opened (ahead of time and under budget) to traffic after an official ribbon cutting ceremony. The day's festivities also included a 365 Lunchtime Jam following the ribbon-cutting and a All That Jazz type event in the evening. The Main Street corridor through the former pedestrian plaza was a combination of an open street and a pedestrian friendly plaza. The street was narrower than the city standard to promote slower traffic movement. The parking areas, where they occurred, were to have standard color curbs but red colored concrete, exactly like on Eighth Street. There were to be 33 metered parking stalls in this four block section (5th to 9th) of Main Street. Between Eighth and Ninth, three loading zones similar to those on Eighth Street would be included along with angle parking in front of Graham's Style Store for Men. Parking locations were based on individual property owner requests. The Town Clock remained in its present location. Traffic will pass it to the east and west.