WASHINGTON — The last intact building of Dublin, Iowa — an unincorporated community in Washington County that existed from the 1870s until 1964, when its last store closed — is set for a demolition by fire on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
The structure about eight miles west of Washington, along 250th Street, was once a general store, also hosting a lodge hall upstairs. But local historian Michael Zahs, who manages it for the Washington County Historical Society, said it was time for it to come down.
“I kept it going as long as possible,” he said. “It’s just to the point that it’s no longer safe, and people have started putting their trash in the store, and there’s no point in that continuing.”
Most of the store’s previous contents were moved to the Conger House in Washington. Shelving was removed from the building as well, now used in an antique store on Washington’s square.
A safe inside proved difficult to open and harder to move until it was stolen last winter, an event Zahs said he was thankful for, since he didn’t know how he’d get it out of the structure himself.
The Washington Fire Department will use the demolition for training, according to Fire Chief Brendan DeLong, who said exercises were planned for firefighters assuming weather cooperates on the 18th with ideal wind speeds and direction.
“We will get some hose line training, fire evolution training, apparatus, and water supply training out of this scenario,” he said in an email. “The building is not structurally safe for us to train inside of it, so all training will be from the exterior.”
The teetering property is a far cry from Dublin in its prime.
An article from The Gazette in 1869 said the intersection in the middle of Dublin had a post office, a blacksmith and a wagon shop, and that while no town was established yet, “one appears to be growing up spontaneously.”
By the 1880s, the unincorporated community was a thriving place of commerce. It had a glove factory, a doctor, a newspaper, a school that trained teachers and an industrious cheese factory, according to a Washington County history textbook, shared by Zahs. But over the decades, it struggled to compete with nearby communities as global economies evolved.
“It never got a railroad, and that’s what caused a (town) to live or die,” Zahs said.
Dublin has entered the spotlight a few times, since the store’s closure, however briefly. The general store was a stop for many of the 2,500 RAGBRAI cyclists in 1975, for instance, who stopped in for refilled water bottles and free muskmelon, handed out by volunteers.
In 1996 a local group, including Zahs, hatched a plan to hold a parade in the former town on St. Patrick’s Day, in honor of its shared namesake with the Irish capital city. The festivity would feature one band, one old car, one tractor, one boy scout, and very few other participants. Organizers set out chairs mostly as a joke, planning on zero attendees, but were startled to find scores of people in the audience when the holiday arrived.
They continued the tradition over the next few years, at one point drawing a crowd of 600, two plane flyovers, and a visit from the governor’s wife, according to archived Washington Evening Journal articles, before county officials reached out about local requirements for insurance at events on public roads. The cost proved too great, and the yearly celebration was put to an end.
“We had to quit our parade because it was too successful,” Zahs joked.
Every other building in the community of Dublin has long since been demolished. Zahs said the general store was the only structure he personally remembered ever seeing at the location.
While the building’s demolition will put an end to Dublin’s last standing remnants, Zahs said the historical society would erect a marker in its place, and make note of four currently unmarked graves on the property. The organization also plans to keep the property mowed.
“The building was hit hard by a derecho several years ago, and so we put x-braces upstairs to stabilize the building, but it just got to the point that, there was no way we could keep the building in safe repair,” he said. “The foundation is just gone. There’s a time when all of us need to go.”
Not every community member agrees, apparently.
A sign has recently been nailed to the building’s west side. Zahs said he didn’t know by whom.
“Don’t burn me!” the sign declares in black, all-capital letters, painted on a white plank. “I’m old! I like it here! It’s ole sweet home for Dublin!”
Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com
