Des Moines High School Music Train 1927

On May 5, 1927, over 250 high school musicians climbed aboard a special train in Des Moines, their instruments packed tight and their nerves running high. They were headed for Iowa City on a rare out-of-town adventure that promised music, competition, and the excitement only a long train ride with friends can bring.

The group was a lively mix—the North High band and orchestra, the East High boys’ glee club, and the Valley Junction Orchestra, among others—all gathered together for the big trip. For many of them, it was their first time traveling with a full musical ensemble, and the train cars buzzed with rehearsed melodies, last-minute tuning, and the hope that their performance might just be the one people remembered.

Picture: Des Moines Tribune. May 6, 1927.

Academy of the Immaculate Conception at Davenport, Iowa

The Academy of the Immaculate Conception sat on a Davenport hill like it owned the place—which, in a way, it did. Built in 1859 and run by the Sisters of Charity, it was where Iowa girls went to learn how to outthink the world. The sisters taught science, music, math, and probably a little bit of rebellion, whether they meant to or not.

For nearly a hundred years, it buzzed with piano music, ink stains, and dreams too big to fit in a classroom. In 1958, the Academy merged with St. Ambrose to become Assumption High. The building didn’t disappear. These days it’s part of Palmer College of Chiropractic.

Luther College. Decorah, Iowa

Luther College. Decorah, Iowa (circa 1910)

Luther College started with a few stubborn Norwegians and a dangerous idea in 1861—to build a college out on the frontier, a place where faith and intellect could share the same bottle. They didn’t have money or textbooks, but they had conviction, and that’s almost the same thing when you’re carving a dream out of the prairie.

The first setup was a makeshift operation in Halfway Creek, Wisconsin. Wooden desks, cold rooms, a lot of prayer, and probably the lingering smell of boiled coffee. When the Civil War blew the country apart, they moved west—to Decorah, Iowa.

Main Hall was the only building those first years. Students froze through morning lectures, studied by candlelight, and worked the land during the day.

From those rough beginnings came a kind of beautiful madness—a belief that knowledge mattered, faith could keep you upright, and Iowa, of all places, could produce a revolution of the mind. Luther College didn’t just survive—it grew teeth.

Wartburg College Clinton Iowa

Wartburg College (circa 1900)

Wartburg College was built by German immigrants who thought knowledge should serve both God and common sense. They weren’t wrong. In 1894 they planted their red-brick fortress on a hill in Clinton, Iowa — a solid slab of faith and discipline staring down the Mississippi like it owned the view.

It wasn’t fancy. It was tough. Classrooms, chapel, dorms, dining hall, library — all jammed into one building like the world’s most righteous machine. It smelled of chalk dust, coal smoke, and boiled potatoes. The professors ran a tight ship. Latin for the mind. Math for the soul. Theology to keep you honest. They preached that the world might hold together if everyone just studied a little harder.

The students learned, prayed, shoveled snow until their fingers cracked. They lived by the bell and the book. The streetcar clanged up from downtown, packed with frozen kids in heavy coats. They studied Scripture, philosophy, bookkeeping — whatever would keep them from going under.

Highland Park College Des Moines Iowa

Highland Park College (circa 1906)

Highland Park College in Des Moines was basically Hogwarts for sensible Midwesterners who didn’t have time for wizard nonsense.

Students rode the streetcar up from downtown. They studied — literature, science, bookkeeping — basically all the things your great-grandparents did before Wi-Fi and television. The professors were serious types who believed learning could save civilization, which seems unlikely in retrospect.

The college didn’t last. It got taken over by Des Moines University, and later Drake University. But for a few good years, Highland Park College was buzzing — full of earnest kids and big ideas and maybe a couple of disastrous romances that still haunt Des Moines.