Regents consider UI request to raze historic Cannon-Gay House

IOWA CITY — The Board of Regents this week will consider a University of Iowa request to tear down a 142-year-old home with a historic designation to save about $750,000 in deferred maintenance costs.

The two-story, 6,200-square-foot Cannon-Gay House at 320 Melrose Ave. — west of the Iowa River and the UI College of Law — was built in 1884 and served as the home of Wilbur D. Cannon, one of Johnson County’s earliest settlers. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in October 1994 — eight years before its 2002 donation to the university, which the following year agreed to subject it to the city’s historic preservation standards.

The university used the building as its College of Law admissions office for a period of time, but it’s been vacant for years with “significant structural issues that make it unusable without a significant financial investment,” according to Board of Regents documents.

In a sort of historic-preservation trade deal with the City of Iowa City’s Historic Preservation Commission and the Iowa City Council, the university has agreed to allow a new historic designation on its 183-year-old Sanxay-Gilmore House if it can raze the Cannon-Gay property.

“As part of the effort to raze the Cannon-Gay House, the university has agreed to make certain doors and other woodwork from the home available to local preservation groups before being razed,” according to board documents.

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The Sanxay-Gilmore House at 109 E. Market St. dates back to 1843 — making it one of the oldest residences in Iowa City — and holds significant historic value in that it was built using limestone thought to be left over from construction of the Old Capitol and once was owned by Eugene Gilmore, the 12th UI president — serving from 1934 to 1940.

The university bought the Sanxay-Gilmore House in 2018, the same year Preservation Iowa listed it among its most endangered properties.

“The home is of significant historic value to the city,” according to board documents. “And the university has agreed to preserve and maintain the property with its new historic designation.”

UI officials did not report expected costs of preserving and maintaining the Sanxay-Gilmore House, but it expects to spend $200,000 to $350,000 tearing down the Cannon-Gay House, which would save about $750,000 in deferred maintenance.

Pending board approval, the Cannon-Gay House will come down between spring and fall 2026.

Market Street apartments

The university years ago proposed using the Sanxay-Gilmore House for a new Nonfiction Writing Program home — taking conditionally a $1 million sliver of land from the city in exchange for its promise to relocate the historic home across the street and restore it.

But moving it proved too risky and costly, nixing the deal, and redirecting the university’s non-fiction efforts toward new construction across the street from the UI president’s residence at the corner of N. Clinton and Church streets.

Nearby at 104 E. Market St., the university also is asking to raze a 10-unit apartment building constructed in 1974 and acquired by UI in 2013.

“The intent of the purchase dating back to 2013 had been in the value of the land adjacent to campus,” according to board documents, reporting the building and individual apartment units need significant renovations.

“And a broken water pipe in December 2025 caused significant water damage to the lower level,” according to UI. “The university intends to raze the building and create a surface parking lot, which would be directly across from the Tippie College of Business and near the east campus residence halls.”

The demolition would remove about $500,000 in deferred maintenance, with the vacant site designated as a “future university building site.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com