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History · Keswick

Keswick’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Keswick. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

1879established
0old images & papers
2recent photos

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway built a 66-mile branch to What Cheer via Keswick in 1879 The town is named for Keswick, England, the home town of a local woman who had offered lodging to the track-laying crew.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Be one of the first

Start Keswick’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Keswick’s history is told.

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Famous people from Keswick

See all 1 →
TWTom WilhiteFilm, TV & Stage
By decade

Keswick, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album
Today2 photos
Home Town MarketCommonsHome Town Market2016IAMap-doton-KeswickCommonsIAMap-doton-Keswick2004
National Register of Historic Places

Nothing in Keswick is on the National Register yet

That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Keswick has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Bruce Goldfish Fisheries in Thornburg, 3.8 miles away.

Keswick and the nearest listed places

Dashed line = Keswick. Tap a dot.
Bruce Goldfish FisheriesMasonic Opera HouseTheodore White HouseSigourney Public LibraryKeokuk County CourthousePublic Square Historic District

Closest to Keswick

Bruce Goldfish FisheriesThornburg · Building3.8miMasonic Opera HouseWhat Cheer · Romanesque7.1miTheodore White HouseSouth English · Built 19007.7miSigourney Public LibrarySigourney · Building8.5miKeokuk County CourthouseSigourney · Building8.6mi

How a place gets listed

1Talk to the stateEvery nomination goes through the State Historic Preservation Office. Owners, towns and historical societies can start one.
2Try a local or state list firstMany states keep their own register with a shorter form, a common first step for old barns, halls and schoolhouses.
3Write it upA nomination covers the history, photos and a map. Bruce Goldfish Fisheries’s page links to a real one.
Know an old place in Keswick?A mill, a schoolhouse, a cellar hole, a church: add a photo of it to Keswick’s story, or a memory of it.
📷 Add a photo of an old place
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places · photos from Wikimedia Commons

Then & now

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
📜 Webster📜 Thornburg📜 What Cheer📜 South English

From Wikimedia Commons (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/18 · 2025-01-01
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