The home at 717 6th Ave NW belongs to one of the founders of the Mount Vernon Historic Preservation Commission. It is therefore in good hands. Older homes require plenty of upkeep, but this one’s beauty, resistance to noise from the street, and…

The house at 525 6th St NW features large porches, a unique geometric porch skirt, and gingerbread trim. Constructed in the 1880s, it is one of the oldest homes in the district. The foundation of an old outbuilding, which may have been an outhouse,…

The current owner of 617 7th Ave NW, Cheryl Russell, has said that she loves coming home to the beauty of this Victorian, which was likely built in 1893. The owners strive to maintain the house’s historical integrity, styling the fences to be…

Old homes will always have their quirks and often need a great deal of upkeep, but this one, located at 616 7th Ave NW, surprised its homeowners when they discovered a cistern beneath the porch. Aside from crumbling old magazines and toys, the…

The blue Victorian home at 703 6th Ave NW was built in 1896 by Cornell music Professor William B. Van Valkenberg, and is the first home built in the Ash Park addition. Van Valkenberg eventually moved out so that he could study abroad, and his family…

The eye-catching small ornate window, or oculus, in the front gable of 603 6th St NW, is an arresting architectural element. The home’s decorative facade also includes dentils along the porch roof, and fish-scale shingle siding, which are classic…

724 5th Ave NW is a cream-colored home with red trim, rectangular windows, and a turret facing the street, but it didn’t always live here. It was built by a banker around 1910 on the Cornell College campus, and was referred to as the Cornell Faculty…

In the summer of 1874, Cornell’s Board of Trustees decided a chapel was needed for the quickly-growing college.[1]The idea was proposed by Rev. E. K. Young, a local Methodist pastor and Cornell alumnus, and the Board quickly approved.[2]They hired…

Old Sem is Cornell College’s first building, with construction beginning in 1852,a year before the College’s founding.[1] Back then, the college was known as the Iowa Conference Seminary and the building was known as the “seminary building.”[2] The…