Fairfield, Iowa Fairfield, Iowa Location of Fairfield inside Jefferson County and Iowa Location of Fairfield inside Jefferson County and Iowa Fairfield, Iowa is positioned in the US Fairfield, Iowa - Fairfield, Iowa Website Fairfield, Iowa Official Website Fairfield is a town/city in, and the governmental center of county of, Jefferson County, Iowa, United States. It has a populace totaling 9,464 citizens as stated to the 2010 census. It is a Midwestern town/city surrounded by rolling farmlands filled with corn, soybean, cattle, and hogs with a median family income of $46,138 (10% of families below the poverty line).
The town/city includes the $6 million Fairfield Arts & Convention Center (FACC), assembled in 2007.
The town/city has 12 enhance parks and recreation areas consisting of more than 1,300 acres and is governed by a seven-member town/city council.
The Fairfield Community School District is home to nearly 2,500 students, teachers, administrators, and staff, with three elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school.
The town/city has two private schools, Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment and Cornerstone Primary School.
The region now known as Jefferson County was first settled in 1836, and became Jefferson County in 1839, with the new improve of Fairfield as the county seat.
But also author Susan Welty suggests it was a play of words on her own name (bonny field). By 1840, Fairfield had a populace of 110 and interval to 650 in 1847. The town/city was the site of the first and second Iowa State Fairs. Fairfield's library was established in 1853, and was the first library in the state of Iowa.
Fairfield's library became the first Carnegie Library outside of Pennsylvania or Scotland funded by Andrew Carnegie, who donated $40,000 to build the library. The Carnegie building on the corner of Washington and Court streets became the library's home on November 28, 1893.
It is estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 fair goers attended this historical event. Parsons College was established in 1875. In 1893 the Carnegie Library was completed, the first west of the Mississippi. During the time dominant up to the American Civil War, Fairfield was a stopping point for the Underground Railroad.
Early architecture in Fairfield includes Victorian homes designed by George Franklin Barber as well a 1915 home designed by Barry Byrne, who trained under Frank Lloyd Wright. A 1930s bank building was designed in the Streamline Moderne style. Commercial and institutional architecture were influenced by the Louden Industries, including the Louden Foundry. Fairfield is the site of the prototype Carnegie library.
Fairfield became one of the several metros/cities that had two Carnegie Libraries.
Fairfield's geography is typical of the American Midwest: around the town/city is rolling farmland specializing in corn, soybeans, cattle and hogs.
North-South is Iowa Highway 1, dominant north to Iowa City and south to the Missouri state border.
According to an article in The New York Times, the town/city "thrives largely on its abundance of start-up companies". Members of the improve have established over 400 businesses in areas such as software, manufacturing, and trading. The Agri-Industrial Products business was established in 1978 and became one of the nation's biggest manufacturers of assembly warning barrels and other products made of plastic. The town/city is also home to Creative Edge, a ceramic tile manufacturer. In 1990, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad called the town/city "one of the state's economic superstars". A 1997 report said the town/city had a momentous number of entrepreneur businesses including a tofu company, a several software firms, a chimney supplies wholesaler, wholefoods grocery store, an petroleum brokerage, and a telecommunications company. These new companies were reported in 1999 to have "created up to 1,500 jobs in high tech businesses ranging from telecommunications companies to Internet providers to PC-oriented magazines". Later, the town/city was dubbed "Silicorn Valley" because of the preponderance of new businesses that were Internet and knowledge based established by practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique. In the 1990s, Fairfield had an average of $10 million in new assembly each year.
Some of the assembly was in the Maharishi Sthapatya Veda style of architecture and encompassed entrances that face either due east or due north causing some businesses and homeowners to close their south and west facing entrances. Eco friendly, subdivisions that border Fairfield and also use the architectural principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda include Cypress Villages, a 145-acre (0.59 km2) evolution north of the city, and Abundance Ecovillage, an off-the-grid improve of 14 homes assembled in three clusters, north of Fairfield.
Cypress Villages applied to the state for incorporation as it could not be took in into either Fairfield or Maharishi Vedic City.
That request was denied until such time as more services could be offered by the community. In addition, close-by Maharishi Vedic City, positioned two miles (3 km) north of Fairfield, began as a subdivision and incorporated as a town/city in 2001. The town/city sponsors an annual Eco-Fair and has more solar energy homes and green building than any other town/city in Iowa. In 2003 a report by the National Center for Small Communities chose Fairfield as a recipient of The Grassroots Rural Entrepreneurship Award, saying that the town/city "has turn into recognized as one the nation's most entrepreneurial small towns." The report said that Fairfield had created over 2,000 jobs in the previous 15 years and that new assembly averages $10 million per year. That same year it received the Community Vitality Center's Entrepreneurial Community of the Year award. According to City officials, Fairfield received investments of over $200 million in venture capital from approximately 1990 to 2004. A 2004 National Public Radio report said that over the past 20 years "TM proponents" had created thousands of jobs and more than 200 businesses. In 2008, the town/city was the "home of 40 software evolution and telecom companies" and as stated to a 2009 report from the University of Iowa's Community Vitality Center, Fairfield has had more than $250 million invested athwart 50 different companies since 1990.
An article in the IEDC Economic Development Journal described Fairfield as a Rural Renaissance City because of its entrepreneurial population. Fairfield is home to the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center (FACC), a 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2) building that cost $6 million to build. The complex consists of a 522-seat proscenium theatre, a company pavilion, meeting rooms, executive conference suite, art loggia, commercial kitchen, offices and outside plaza.
On the first Friday evening of every month, Fairfield hosts the 1st Fridays Art Walk, which attracts more than 2,500 visitors and showcases small-town and nationwide artists in downtown arcades and occasional live, outside music. In 2005, the city's Friday Art Walk was titled Iowa's Tourism Event of the Year. In 2006, the town/city was titled one of the "12 Great Places You've Never Heard Of" by Mother Earth News magazine, which cited its notable community spa and high number of restaurants and art arcades.
It characterized the town/city as a "sustainable and cosmopolitan town". In the same year, the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs designated Fairfield as one of the Iowa Great Places. In 2009, a concert by The Beach Boys and The Nadas was held on the Fairfield Middle School grounds, as a benefit for the FACC and the city's Green Sustainability Plan. The concert was sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation.
This was the 40th, and final performance of The Beach Boys' summer tour of 2009. Fairfield was chose by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs to be one of six Iowa Great Places to participate in new program to revitalize the cultural arts in 2010. Fairfield has been described as an "international center" for Transcendental Meditation; a "national magnet" and "the world's biggest training center" for practitioners of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Many of its current inhabitants moved there to participate in the group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi program inside one of the two golden domes assembled in 1981 and 1982 on the Maharishi University of Management campus.
Yogic Flyers living in Fairfield who are not part of the college are said to be members of the "Town Super Radiance" (TSR) community. In 2004, National Public Radio reported that "after 30 years, many in Iowa are comfortable with Fairfield's TM community" and a 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal said "natives lived uneasily with the outsiders...but the election of Mr.
Author Jack Forem wrote in 2012 that Fairfield is home to one of the biggest Jewish churchs in Iowa and one of the biggest Liberal Catholic Churches in the nation. That year Oprah Winfrey visited Fairfield to interview people and was given a tour the town. An account of her visit titled "America's Most Unusual Town", was broadcast in March 2012 via the Oprah Winfrey Network. In 2013 Fairfield was titled by Smithsonian periodical as one of "The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013" and was visited by actor Jim Carrey, who visited again in 2014. Past celebrity visitors include film director David Lynch, singer-songwriter Donovan, musician Moby, musician James Mc - Cartney psychiatry professor Norman E.
Fairfield has 12 enhance parks and recreation areas consisting over 1,300 acres (over 5.5 km2) and a "master trail plan" underway that includes a 17-mile (27 km) trail system. Some of the trail is paved, five miles (8 km) of trail is veiled with lime chips while other areas include traditional wooded paths.
The final trail plan includes a "heritage path" dominant to historical sites and a water trail that joins the area's river and three lakes. In 2012, Fairfield was chose" as one of ten finalists" in the Blue Zones community, "small town/city category" primarily because of its "many walking trails and outside activities". In 2015 Fairfield was titled a certified Blue Zones Community . Jefferson County Courthouse in Fairfield Fairfield is governed by a seven-member town/city council headed by a mayor.
As of 2014, town/city council members are Katy Anderson (at large), Doug Flournoy (at large), Martha Rasmussen (Ward 1), John Revolinski (Ward 2), Tom Thompson (Ward 3), Michael Halley (Ward 4), and Daryn Hamilton (Ward 5). Fairfield's town/city administrator is Mike Harmon. Fairfield's grassroots accomplishments to problematic a sustainable improve that focuses on reducing energy and protecting resources have been supported by a position created by Iowa State University extension services and the City of Fairfield. In 2009, Mayor Malloy, was titled by MSN.com to a nationwide list of 15 "green" mayors. Malloy describes the city's agenda for sustainability as aggressive, and includes a Green Strategic Plan covering everything from conservation, small-town farms, small-town food, alternative transportation, and bike paths and trails. The hope, as stated to Malloy, is that Fairfield will turn into a model improve and a "virtual template" for small metros/cities interested in creating a sustainable town/city surrounding. In 2009 the town/city qualified for an $80,000 grant from the state Office of Energy Independence as funding for a sustainability plan scheduled to be instead of in 2020. The town/city was one of 21 locations to receive the state Governor's Environmental Excellence Award in 2013 after it reduced its energy consumption by more than 8% in one year. Fairfield has installed $60,000 worth of solar panels on its enhance library building and through state and small-town funding the town/city has created a $4 million "energy-efficiency loan fund." The Fairfield Community School District is home to nearly 2,500 students, teachers, administrators and staff, with three elementary schools (Pence Elementary, Washington Elementary, and Libertyville Elementary), a middle school, and a 3 - A high school.
Also, all fifth undertaking classes were moved to the Fairfield Middle School. The Fairfield school board voted to use the building for Fairfield High School's alternative school in 2010-11. Fairfield was also home to Fairfield Christian School for a number of years. Fairfield also has two private schools, Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment and Cornerstone Primary School. The town/city is home to Maharishi University of Management (MUM), a private college that moved to Fairfield in 1974 after purchasing the former ground of Parsons College. Following a nationwide conference held in 1979, about 800 citizens moved to Fairfield at the urging of MUM's founder. Fairfield's "all volunteer", improve airways broadcast KRUU-LP, is said to be the only airways broadcast in the midwest that uses solar energy for its operations and radio signal. Fairfield's small-town tv station is called FPAC (Fairfield Public Access).
Fairfield's small-town journal is called the Fairfield Ledger.
Fairfield has a small airport north of the city, which was assembled in 1967 and renovated in 2006.
Max Steinberg, Professional poker player who was originally born in Fairfield a b c d e Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) details for Fairfield, Iowa; United States Geological Survey (USGS); April 30, 1979.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fairfield, Iowa.
City of Fairfield Fairfield Community School District Fairfield, Iowa at DMOZ City Data Comprehensive Statistical Data and more about Fairfield, Iowa Municipalities and communities of Jefferson County, Iowa, United States Batavia Coppock Fairfield Libertyville Lockridge Maharishi Vedic City Packwood Pleasant Plain
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Cities in Iowa - Cities in Jefferson County, Iowa - County seats in Iowa - Transcendental Meditation - Fairfield, Iowa - Populated places on the Underground Railroad - Underground Railroad in Iowa
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