Eagle Point Park Designated City Landmark Site

DUBUQUE, Iowa – The Dubuque City Council has designated Eagle Point Park as a City Landmark Site. Eagle Point Park is a 164-acre community park that opened in 1909 on Dubuque’s northeast side. The park is owned by the City of Dubuque and managed by the City’s leisure services department’s park division. The park overlooks the Mississippi River, providing a spectacular view of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin. 

A City Landmark is a property or structure designated by ordinance of the City Council that is worthy of preservation, rehabilitation or restoration because of its prehistoric, historic, architectural, archeological or cultural significance to the city, the state or nation. There are 10 other designated City landmarks.

Eagle Point Park is a unique and important amenity for the City of Dubuque, most known for its cultural history, spectacular views, and recreational uses.  There are 10 pavilions located in the park and their construction spans nearly 100 years.  The styles exhibited in the pavilions are diverse. Some are free standing structures while others are purposefully integrated in the natural landscape. Features like the bridge complex spanning the road, the fish pond built into the bluffside, and tunnel leading from the bridge complex to the road below, are designed to connect landscape and architecture, allowing visitors a unique exploratory experience.

Much of the landscape and building architecture in the park reflect the influences of the early 20th Century Prairie Style School of Architecture, and of note, the famous landscape architect and one-time Dubuque Park Superintendent, Alfred Caldwell. Eagle Point Park was the young Caldwell’s first attempt at architecture design and its construction management. Prairie style architecture is characterized often by low-slung buildings following the landscape with broad eaves and linear features. The style utilizes native building materials and integrates with the surrounding landscape, with consideration of vistas in design and placement for dramatic effect. Decoration is traditionally organic in nature or simply evolving from the structure’s design. Although Eagle Point Park is a very late example of the Prairie style, it is an exceptionally fine example, especially considering Caldwell’s relative inexperience so early in his career.

Eagle Point Park was listed as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. The National Register is the federal government’s official list of historic properties worthy of preservation.

For more information about Eagle Point Park and the 10 other City landmarks, visit the City’s website at www.cityofdubuque.org/341/City-Designated-Landmarks.

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