The early years of Des Moines University

Courtesy of the Des Moines University Library Archives and Special Collections

For years I have lived on west side of Des Moines on Polk Boulevard. I have driven on Grand Avenue going one direction or another more times than could be calculated. But, since I lived in this neighborhood since 2009, I have never met a college student who attended Des Moines University. I see them walking to and from campus but I never greeted one out in the wild. 

The first time I ever visited the campus was to have my right foot examined. Over the years, I have destroyed every shoe I have owned. My right foot eventually rips through my shoe and I can see it peeking out through the shredded material. At 38 years old, I finally decided to see a podiatrist. The day I showed up for my appointment at the DMU Clinic, I was examined by a doctor who had a class. I gave him permission to have students participate in the exam. The doctor did his thing and then invited a half dozen students to look at my foot and give their thoughts. I heard about all the ways my foot was imperfect, deformed and injured. However, none of those things were the actual problem. It turns out that the balls of my right foot are uneven. The doctor said he could either break my foot and reconstruct it or write me a prescription for custom insoles. The answer was clear.

Years later, the college moved the majority of its departments to the new facilities at 8025 Grand Ave. in West Des Moines. I toured the empty facility in search for new office space and walked past the archival library — a room with glass doors and what looked like hand-carved shelves filled with books, college catalogs dating back to the late 1800s and manuscripts. 

Courtesy of the Des Moines University Library Archives and Special Collections

The founders were summer doctor Summerfield Saunders Still and his wife Ella D. Still. They both graduated from the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri. That was the very first osteopathic school that was founded by Summerfield’s uncle, Dr. Andrew Taylor Still, the early developer of osteopathic medicine in the United States. 

Iowa legalized the practice of osteopathic medicine in 1898, opening the door for S.S. and Ella Still to open their college in Des Moines and carry on the family tradition. The location of the first Dr. S.S. Still College and Infirmary of Osteopathy & Surgery was on West Locust Street, where the Pappajohn Sculpture Park is now. The institution changed its name to Still College (of Osteopathy) in 1905 and again in 1911 to Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy.

Still College was progressive for its time. Doctor Ella Still, along with several other women, were faculty. One-third of the student body was women who studied alongside men. At the time, most colleges separated the sexes. In 1927, the campus moved to 722 Sixth Ave., which is where it as located until it moved to 3200 Grand Ave. in 1972. In the 1930s and 1940s, the school opened enrollment to people of color as well as persons who were disabled. 

In the 1960s, after the college’s name changed to the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery, it became the first institution to study alcoholism and addiction as a disease. I found it interesting that the college was not only socially progressive, but its treatment of addiction as an illness saved many lives, too.

When the college decided to move to 3200 Grand Ave., the institution purchased what was then Saint Joseph’s Academy, a Catholic girls school founded in 1884. There was a lot of renovation over the years including the construction of the clinic in the 1980s. The 1970s saw a huge surge in female enrollment. When I discussed this with Allison Guild, the college’s archivist, we guessed it could have been part of the Women’s Liberation Movement and Vietnam. During World War I and II, the college saw a related drop in in male enrollment. 

The college changed its name in 1999 to Des Moines University, the name most millennials and younger generations are familiar with. From 2003 to 2009, before he ran for governor again, Terry Brandstad served as its president. ♦

Kristian Day is a filmmaker and writer based in Des Moines. He also hosts the syndicated Iowa Basement Tapes radio program on 98.9 FM KFMG. Instagram: @kristianday | Twitter: @kristianmday