Our Clive Historical Diorama is a real, working model train designed and planned from Clive maps from the early 1900s. Come and see this exciting display at the Clive Depot in Swanson Memorial Park.
Tours
Clive Caboose
Caboose Acquisition
When we were talking to the owners of the Norfolk Southern Railroad about acquiring the Depot, they offered the Clive Caboose to us. At that time, the railroads were doing away with using a caboose at the end of trains and they didn’t need it any more. Since we were interested in the Depot as a museum, they thought we might be interested in having the Caboose for our “historical park.” They were correct! Cabooses are really hard to find and so we are very lucky to have one. It fits in very nicely with our “railroad” history for the City of Clive.
Clive Depot
It took five years to gain possession of the depot through negotiation with Norfolk Southern Railroad. It wasn’t that they did not want us to have it, in fact they were trying to give it to us, but the legal departments within the railroad were horribly slow. Actually, that worked to our advantage as we really had no place to move it as was required by the railroad. If it wasn’t moved, it would be taken down. Unfortunately, it also caught on fire and sustained substantial damage during the time we were waiting to gain possession of it.
Built in 1882, it was the cornerstone for the community of Clive. Trains came and trains went. Lots of trains. Freight, mail, cattle, produce, and passengers made their way through the doors of the Clive Depot.
See and hear what it was like living in Clive Iowa in the early 1900’s.
If you want a live personal or family tour send us a request for information
School Groups love this experience. See history and have a class picnic!
Professional and Civic Groups can use the site for meeting or a special event. Just contact us at (515) 321-2725 to make arrangements or to get planning information.
Swanson General Store
Swanson House History
1940’s picture of the Swanson Family.
Left to right: Charles, Scennia, Mildred, Ester, Eileen, Agnes
Scennia
The Swanson House was built in 1911 for the purpose of income and living quarters for Mrs. Scennia Swanson and her five small children.
“In the fall of 1911, my mother was left a widow with five small children, ages ranging from five months (Mildred) to 10 years old. She left the farm in Grimes and built her home in Clive with the help of friends and neighbors. It was in this General Store and Post Office where she raised her family. Our home was very plain. No carpet on the floors. We lived in the upstairs. Only the living room was papered. The downstairs was used for the store, post office and general storage.”
–Mildred Swanson
Mrs. Scennia Swanson ran the store from 1911 to 1929. At that time it was turned into a two-story house where Scennia and Mildred lived out the rest of their lives.
» Swanson General Store: 1911-1929
» Post Office: 1912-1929
» Private Swanson home until 1991
» CHS restores home as General Store & Post Office.
Upon Mildred’s death in 1991, she left the property in trust to the City of Clive with the stipulation that it be developed into a park. The city had no desire to work with the structure (house) and came to the historical society to see if they would want to restore the house to some functional capacity and manage it. For the Historical Society, it was a blessing in disguise. No one would wish for Mildred’s death, but with this property, a plan was devised for allowing the old depot to be moved across the street instead of to the new Campbell Park and a promise was make to restore the house to the original General Store.
Restoring the Swanson house back to the General Store cost approximately $45,000. The addition had to be removed and replaced, the interior was gutted to remove walls that had been added, floors had to be replaced that had been destroyed by termites. When our contractor removed the 13 layers of wall paper in the main rooms he could see exactly where the shelves had been in the store, so he built the shelves to match the original ones.