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Changing Kellogg Neighborhood
Photo from the Farwell Brown Photographic Archive, 1949

Construction of the Rainbow Coffee Shop’s new home at the intersection of Fifth and Kellogg had already begun when this 1949 image was captured.  At left is the stately Italianate home partially used at this time by Paul R. Jones Sheet Metal Works.  The Jones family had earlier lived in this neighborhood.  Farwell Brown calls it the Brooks house.  He also reports at one point it was owned by the Masonic Lodge and was used as a convalescent hospital during the great influenza epidemic of 1918.  It became the headquarters of the Iowa Farm Bureau in 1919.    View more photos of this area.  The Ames Chamber of Commerce operated from the brick building constructed in what had been that home’s backyard.  Three other houses had been removed fourteen years earlier to allow the construction of the new Ames Post Office.

There are thirteen homes (two indicated as offices) visible in the above portion of the 1920 Sanborn Insurance map.  The yellow color indicates wood frame construction.  The 1912 Post Office was located across the street to the south from the large house on the corner.  Note the two spire Christian Church located on the corner occupied later by Mathison Motors.  View photos of the Christian Church.

Six years later, in 1926, there are still thirteen homes on the same block, but the brick building (at center in the top photo) has been constructed at 503 Kellogg.

The 1947 Sanborn Insurance map shows the transition away from residential use is nearly complete, with only four homes remaining.  The new post office is in place, although a later addition will remove two more houses.  On Fifth Street, the old house is now used as the Bus Depot.  The McFarland Clinic building has been constructed, the Tribune building is in place, as is the Mathison Motors building (constructed as Max Duitch dealership).  A service station has been constructed on the corner.  The congregation of the First Christian Church has relocated to the corner of Clark and Sixth Street.

This photo showing the completed Rainbow Coffee Shop is from September of 1950.