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Old Ankeny, new Ankeny: what growth feels like on the ground
Ankeny’s growth story is no longer just anecdotal. The city’s 2024 Special Census confirmed a population of 76,207, up more than 8,000 residents from 2020, a 12.25% increase in four years. The city says that makes Ankeny the 5th largest city in Iowa. Those are the kinds of numbers that change how a
Dogtown: the business district where the neighborhood shows its newer face
If the campus is the oldest institutional anchor in the area, Dogtown is one of the clearest expressions of the neighborhood’s newer public identity. Dogtown’s official site describes it as a business, dining, and entertainment district in the heart of the Drake Neighborhood, and Drake’s own economi
The parks-and-sports city: why Ankeny feels built for families
One of the clearest ways Ankeny explains itself now is through parks, trails, and recreation. The city’s Parks & Recreation facilities page says Ankeny offers more than 40 parks and 80 miles of trails, along with aquatic centers, youth sports, skate parks, fishing spots, picnic areas, and adult recr
James Jordan and the house that tells the district's deepest story
If Valley Junction has a founding figure, it is James C. Jordan. The district’s official history says the community’s development was sparked by Jordan, a prosperous cattle owner whose home was also a stop on the Underground Railroad. West Des Moines Historical Society materials go further, saying J
How Drake made a neighborhood
Drake University began as an act of relocation and ambition. The university’s history says the Disciples of Christ in Iowa decided in 1881 to move Oskaloosa College to Des Moines, and that a pledge from Francis Marion Drake helped secure the new institution. In its first semester, the school had 77
Fall Festival, Holiday Happenings, and the ritual life of Beaverdale
A neighborhood becomes itself not only through roads and houses, but through repeated rituals. The Beaverdale Fall Festival says its mission is to build community and cherished traditions while celebrating and promoting the neighborhood and surrounding communities. That is one of the clearest missio
SummerFest: how a fast-growing city still tries to gather like a town
Ankeny’s growth can make it easy to assume its civic life must feel recent or diffuse. SummerFest argues otherwise. The official SummerFest site says the event brings Ankeny and the surrounding metro together for three days of music, carnival rides, local food, and family fun, and the 2026 edition w
Why Valley Junction still works after dark
Valley Junction’s current strength is that it is not only a daytime shopping district. It still knows how to gather people after hours. The district’s event pages say Music in the Junction runs every Thursday from May through September at Railroad Park, with the beverage garden opening at 5:00 p.m.
Valley Junction: the downtown that existed before West Des Moines was West Des Moines
Valley Junction begins with a fact that gives the whole district its importance: it is the original downtown of what became West Des Moines. The Historic Valley Junction Foundation says that in the 1890s, after news spread that the railroad was moving into the area, several businessmen bought 40 acr
Relays week: when the neighborhood becomes Iowa's front row seat
The Drake area has one week each year when its identity intensifies dramatically: Relays week. Drake’s digital collections call the Drake Relays an annual tradition since 1910 and one of the longest-running track-and-field events in the nation. That kind of longevity makes the event more than a spor
Drake University Area: a neighborhood bigger than the campus inside it
The Drake neighborhood introduces itself with unusual confidence. The Drake Neighborhood Association says it is one of the oldest, largest, and most diverse neighborhoods in Des Moines, and the university’s own neighborhood page uses the same language. Both sources define the neighborhood broadly, s
Why people stay: Beaverdale as an active neighborhood, not just a pretty one
Beaverdale’s appeal is not only aesthetic. It is organizational. Invest DSM’s Franklin Area page, which sits at the juncture of Beaverdale and Waveland Park, describes the area as a place where neighbors walk, bike, and drive on leafy streets to iconic local gathering spots and convenient shopping d
The Beaverdale Brick: how a house type became a neighborhood language
Beaverdale is one of those rare neighborhoods where the houses became part of the name. The neighborhood association says most subdivisions were developed between 1920 and 1940, and that in 1938 contractor E.T. McMurray began building the now-famous Beaverdale Brick homes. That date matters because
Beaver Avenue: the road that became Beaverdale's main street
The best way into Beaverdale is often Beaver Avenue itself. The neighborhood association says the road began as the old Fort Dodge Stage Road, was renamed Beaver Avenue in 1903, and was later improved with brick paving in 1917. That is the whole transformation in miniature: trail to road, road to co
Uptown Ankeny: the old commercial core that burned, rebuilt, and found a second life
If Ankeny has an older civic heart, it is Uptown. The city’s history page says that between 1932 and 1940, Ankeny suffered four major fires that nearly destroyed the uptown business area. Most of the businesses were rebuilt, which is one of those plain historical facts that reveals an enormous amoun
Ankeny: the town the railroad helped make
Ankeny begins with a founder and a rail line. The City of Ankeny says John Fletcher Ankeny and his wife Sarah founded the community in 1875, and that John Ankeny was a Des Moines businessman, politician, and stockholder in the Minnesota Narrow Gauge Railroad that was later built through the town. A
Floodwater, Main Street, and the district that refused to quit
Valley Junction’s comeback story cannot be told honestly without the flood. The district’s official history says that in 1993, a devastating flood shut down 100% of Valley Junction businesses, leaving buildings with anywhere from 6 inches to 6 feet of water. West Des Moines’ city history likewise no
5th Street: how an old main street kept learning new jobs
If Valley Junction has a daily voice, it is still 5th Street. The district’s own history says 5th Street became the spine of the commercial district after the town’s founding, and current Valley Junction materials continue to present it as the center of shopping, dining, and events. The line from th
Old houses, moving houses, and the pressure of staying itself
One of the most revealing Drake-area stories is about housing — not in the abstract, but in the way old houses, redevelopment, and neighborhood pressure keep colliding. The Drake Neighborhood Association highlights historic homes of all styles, and the neighborhood’s dedicated historic survey invite
Waukee: from Shirley to Waukee, and from rail stop to boomtown
Waukee’s story begins with land, rail, and a name change that still feels strangely vivid. The City of Waukee says General Lewis Addison Grant and Major William Ragan bought the land that would become Waukee in 1869 after the Des Moines Valley Railroad planned a line through the area. The city’s his