Iowa Hospital for the Insane, Main Building, West Main Street Vicinity, Clarinda, Page County, IA

Significance: Third of the four state mental hospitals to be built in Iowa. The building was the first of them to be designed by an Iowa firm of architects, Foster and Liebbe, of Des Moines. The architectural planning of the building followed the precedents established at the two earlier institutions. In the method chosen for accomplishing its construction - day labor under a superintendent - the precedents of the earlier hospitals were also followed. The building is also significant as a public building of considerable size in a late Victorian architectural style corresponding, in many of its decorative aspects, to the Eastlake style.
Survey number: HABS IA-52