West Des Moines, Iowa West Des Moines, Iowa West Des Moines welcome sign on George Mills Civic Pkwy.
West Des Moines welcome sign on George Mills Civic Pkwy.
West Des Moines, Iowa is positioned in the US West Des Moines, Iowa - West Des Moines, Iowa West Des Moines is a town/city in Polk, Dallas, and Warren counties in the US state of Iowa.
As of the 2010 census, the town/city population was 56,609. West Des Moines is the second-largest town/city in the Des Moines urbane region and the tenth-largest town/city in Iowa.
The West Des Moines region used to be home to the Sac and Fox tribes.
His residence, the Jordan House, has been restored and is now home to the West Des Moines Historical Society.
In West Des Moines' early years, the town was a trading and shipping junction.
West Des Moines incorporated as the town/city of Valley Junction on October 9, 1893.
The Rock Island's facilities moved out of Valley Junction and back into Des Moines in 1936.
Building commenced and by September of the following year, the doors of the new Valley High School were opened at 8th and Hillside.
For their own protection they lived in boxcars and tiny homes in an region located south of Railroad Avenue and west of the chief rail yards.
The older kids appreciateed the chance to take the street car to Des Moines for an afternoon of shopping and maybe lunch along the river.
By purchasing territory from the Ashworth family farm, the Des Moines Golf and Country Club left Des Moines in 1923 for a more picturesque setting along the White Pole Road auto trail at 8th Street allowing the High Society of Des Moines a relaxing and rather pleasant drive away from the hussle and bussle of the town/city for a day of golf in the Valley. By the close of the decade, however, the picnic was over.
The name of "West Des Moines" would give it the respectibility and develop that the town desperately needed.
The opposition feared that the change to West Des Moines would cause property owners to be taxed the same as Des Moines.
It was also declared as a step toward annexation by Des Moines.
On January 1, 1938, the name "Valley Junction" was relegated to the past, and the new town/city of West Des Moines took the first steps to a new identity.
Today the initial company precinct of West Des Moines has been preserved as Historic Valley Junction.
In 1955, West Des Moines Elementary School at Walnut and 6th was retitled "Nellie Phenix Elementary" with respect to the former principal. The late 30's were very good years in the school's athletic teams, producing memorable names: True, Gavin, Swink, and Sherbo.
In 1950 West Des Moines had a populace of 5,615, but the town/city began to expanded as many new housing subdivisions were assembled in the decades ahead.
West Des Moines took in the neighboring improve of Clover Hills in 1950, the town of Ashawa, a former Rock Island barns stop, in 1957, and the town of Commerce, along the Raccoon River, in 1960.
The venerable town/city hall lacked the capacity to keep up with the city's expansion, so in 1954 a new municipal building was opened.
The assembly of Interstate 35, Interstate 80, and Interstate 235 in the 1960s brought more citizens and businesses to West Des Moines.
This assembly also caused the Des Moines Golf and Country Club to sell its locale along Ashworth Road and 8th Street and then move to its current locale in Dallas County. In 1966, Dowling Catholic High School/St.
Joseph Educational Center purchased 55-acre (22 ha) from the Des Moines Golf and Country Club and, later , moved from Des Moines and opened at its current location, 1400 Buffalo Road, in the fall of 1972. Several retail and office complexes opened along the I-235 corridor after the freeway's culmination, including Valley West Mall, which opened in 1975.
West Des Moines' populace jumped from 11,964 in 1960 to 31,702 in 1990.
West Des Moines period into Dallas County amid the 1990s and 2000s, once again placing the premier golf courses of the Des Moines Golf and Country Club in its town/city limits and punctuated by the opening of one of the best golf courses in Iowa at the Glen Oaks Country Club along with the West Glen Town Center and the biggest in the state of Iowa, Jordan Creek Town Center and shopping mall in 2004.
In 2005 West Des Moines took in land in Warren County for the first time.
Seeing the territory to the south of Des Moines as extremely valuable, especially with the culmination of a primary "South-Belt Freeway" system, the metros/cities of Norwalk and West Des Moines are actively competing for territory in the northern part of Warren County.
From 1990 to 2015, West Des Moines is presently the quickest burgeoning city in Iowa as stated to territory mass.
West Des Moines' new police station opened in April 1992.
This was followed by the opening of a new enhance library in 1996; the library served as temporary home for West Des Moines' town/city hall until a new building was dedicated in late 2002.
The ground also features a new stadium for Valley High School that also opened in 2002.
On the same property, the West Des Moines School precinct operates Valley Southwoods, a freshman high school with over 600 students that opened in 1996.
Turning the West Des Moines Community Schools into a two high school precinct was not acceptable.
In 2012, Clegg Park Elementary was renovated and opened as the new Walnut Creek Campus which is the district's alternative high school.
West Des Moines uses the mayor-council form of government with a town/city manager appointed by the town/city council.
Rick Messerschmidt served as the interim mayor of the town/city following former mayor Eugene Meyer's resignation in January 2007; On April 17 Steve Gaer was propel mayor amid a special election. Tom Hadden is the town/city manager of West Des Moines.
West Des Moines is positioned at 41 34 25 N 93 45 1 W (41.573739, 93.750359). According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 39.48 square miles (102.25 km2), of which, 38.59 square miles (99.95 km2) is territory and 0.89 square miles (2.31 km2) is water. West Des Moines' locale in the Raccoon River valley has left parts of the city, especially the Valley Junction area, apt to flooding.
After the Great Flood of 1993, a floodwall was constructed along Walnut Creek (near the boundary with Des Moines) to protect that area.
West Des Moines has a humid continental climate (Koppen climate classification Dfa).
Climate data for West Des Moines While close-by Clive, Urbandale, and Windsor Heights use the same street numbers for north-south streets that Des Moines uses, West Des Moines uses its own street numbering system.
Thus, 86th Street in Clive and Urbandale becomes 22nd Street in West Des Moines.
Iowa Highway 28, which forms most of the boundary between Des Moines and West Des Moines, is 63rd Street in Des Moines but 1st Street in West Des Moines.
Many of the east-west streets share the same name with Des Moines, although the numbering of these east-west streets starts over in West Des Moines.
The ethnic makeup of the town/city was 88.4% White, 3.3% African American, 0.2% Native American, 4.8% Asian, 1.5% from other competitions, and 1.9% from two or more competitions.
Hy-Vee, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Kum & Go, Guide - One Insurance, American Equity, Sammons Financial Group, ITA Group, Windsor Windows & Doors and the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care are headquartered in West Des Moines.
According to West Des Moines' 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the town/city are: 4 West Des Moines Community Schools 1,128 8 City of West Des Moines 706 The West Des Moines Community School District has nine elementary schools, two junior high schools, and one high school (Valley), with a second high school for freshmen only (Valley Southwoods) and an alternative high school (Walnut Creek Campus).
Parts of Clive, Urbandale, and Windsor Heights are also in the West Des Moines School District.
The Dallas County portion of West Des Moines is part of the Waukee School District; three of that district's seven elementary schools are positioned in West Des Moines.
Private schools in West Des Moines include Dowling Catholic High School and Iowa Christian Academy.
Both the golf courses at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club and at the Glen Oaks Country Club have been ranked persistently in the top ten golf courses in Iowa.
In 2011, the course at Glen Oaks was titled the #1 golf course in the State of Iowa by Golf Digest. "West Des Moines (city) Quick - Facts".
"2010 Demographic Profile IA West Des Moines city".
The Des Moines Register.
"Des Moines Golf and Country Club: Club History".
Des Moines Golf and Country Club website.
"West Des Moines Community Schools: Our History".
West Des Moines Community Schools.
The Des Moines Register.
West Des Moines, Iowa US Enumeration Bureau Greater Des Moines Partnership.
"Large Private and Publicly Held Employers, Greater Des Moines" (PDF).
City of West Des Moines CAFR Post (eds.), West Des Moines: From Railroads to Crossroads, 1893 1993, West Des Moines: West Des Moines Centennial, Inc., 1993.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to West Des Moines, Iowa.
West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce West Des Moines School District West Des Moines Public Library West Des Moines Historical Society City-Data Comprehensive Statistical Data and more about West Des Moines
Categories:
West Des Moines, Iowa - Cities in Iowa - Cities in Polk County, Iowa - Cities in Dallas County, Iowa - Cities in Warren County, Iowa - Des Moines urbane region - Populated places established in 1893 - 1893 establishments in Iowa
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