Spencer’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Spencer. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗When Clay County was established in 1851, it had no local government and official business was done out of Sergeant's Bluff, nearly 100 miles away on the Missouri River. In 1859, Judge Hubbard of Iowa's 4th Judicial District authorized a committee to find a site for the county seat. This committee selected "Section 20 of Spencer Township", located roughly in the center of the county near the confluence of "Sioux River and Ocheydan Creek", as the site for the "seat of justice". County Judge Charles Smeltzer approved their plan and began signing documents with the location "Spencer, Clay County, Iowa", even though he was not physically there. A small group of land speculators had cleared the area and laid out a town plan, but there were no people living in that area at the time. Most of Clay County's residents were living in Peterson Township, in the far southeastern corner of the county.…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Spencer’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Spencer’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSpencer, IA, 1907: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Spencer
See all 15 →
Spencer, decade by decade
1990s
6 historic places in Spencer
Spencer has 6 listings on the National Register, and they protect 139 historic buildings, because North Grand Avenue Residential Historic District alone counts 96.
Where they are
When they were listed
Listed 1981Clay County CourthouseListed 1984Adams-Higgins HouseListed 1998Little Sioux River BridgeListed 2004Grand Avenue Historic Commercial DistrictListed 2010Spencer High School and AuditoriumListed 2014North Grand Avenue Residential Historic DistrictThen & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Spencer, IA (1907) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (3) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.