Sherman, Hoyt, Place

About this property

Hoyt Sherman Place, the home of Hoyt Sherman, was built in 1877 and is located in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1850, Hoyt Sherman purchased five acres of land in Des Moines for $105. In 1877, Hoyt Sherman Place, the family home, was completed with the help of William Foster, an Iowa architect. Almost immediately, it is noted in writings to be, "a society showplace of the grandest scale." Among its distinguished guests are General William Tecumseh Sherman, brother of Hoyt, General Ulysses S. Grant, General Philip Sheridan, and Major William McKinley. Hoyt Sherman had moved to Fort Des Moines, IA, at the age of 21, in 1848, when Fort Des Moines was then a frontier town. Sherman, a lawyer, and later was appointed the city's postmaster by President Zachary Taylor. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him as an Army Paymaster with the rank of major. Sherman was involved in the formation of the Equitable of Iowa Insurance Company, the Des Moines school system, the waterworks system and other essential facilities. Sherman and his wife, Sara, raised five children, Frank, Addie, Charles, Arthur, and Helen, in the home. Major Hoyt Sherman died in January 1904. In 1893, The Sisters of Mercy, from Davenport, Iowa, rented the home and created the first Mercy Hospital. It held 52 beds and operated for nearly two years. The Des Moines Sherman Hill neighborhood is named after Hoyt Sherman Place. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The original theater was built in 1923. In 2004, a major theater restoration project took place. The historic theater has seating available for 1,252 guests. Some of the major acts that have performed at the Hoyt Sherman Place Theater include: Dwight Yoakam, Dave Chappelle, Martina McBride, and David Sedaris. In 2015, Hoyt Sherman Place was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame for its continued excellence in providing a beautiful venue for musicians to perform and for its rich history of presenting music to the masses. In 1885 the Des Moines Women’s Club decided to create an art collection in the city of Des Moines was a top priority. The first piece they purchased was a bronze statue of Joan of Arc at the Chicago World's Fair, World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. This piece is still on display at Hoyt Sherman Place. The collection continued to grow with purchases from the Women's Club as well as a large donation of art and artifacts from Major S.H.M. Byers, author of The Song of Iowa and Sherman's March to the Sea and his wife, Margaret, in 1912, as well as other generous donors from the Des Moines area. The majority of these works are still on display in the Hoyt Sherman Place Gallery. Some of the paintings are attributed to well-known artists such as Otto van Veen, Robert Reid (American Painter), Edwin Lord Weeks and Andrea del Verrocchio.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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