Hotel Maytag Apartments (Newton)

Hotel Maytag exterior after rehabilitation

2020 Preservation at its Best: Multi-Family Residential

Hotel Maytag is a magnificent, five-story brick and terra cotta mixed-use building on the northeast quadrant of Newton’s town square. Originally designed by Chicago architect Henry Raeder and constructed by Frederick Louis Maytag in 1926- 27, Hotel Maytag was both innovative and luxurious for its time. The building served as Newton, Iowa’s main event hub until the mid-1960s, when its main ballroom closed and its interior spaces were chopped up to create apartments, offices and commercial spaces. Over the next several decades the 81,979-SF structure would undergo multiple ownership changes and continue to decline until the City of Newton acquired the building.

The challenge was to bring about what was simultaneously a restoration and adaptive reuse project. Restoring the theater, the elaborately detailed dining or Cameo room, and the fantastic second floor ballroom, and repurposing the upper four floors into 45 modern apartment homes. The project protected the character defining features of the historic building, while completely gutting and replacing all of the building systems, adding modern life safety features, and building apartments that people would actually want to live in.

Hotel Maytag ballroom after rehabilitation

This project was funded through State and Federal Historic Tax Credits, Workforce Housing Tax Credits, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Bank Loan, City of Newton Loan, State of Iowa Loan, Main Street Grant, and owner equity.

Preservation Iowa’s two most visible programs are Iowa’s Most Endangered and Preservation at Its Best. These two programs work well together because being listed as Most Endangered often times leads to awareness, a preservation effort, and a high-quality, award winning project.

The full list of Preservation Iowa’s 2020 Preservation at its Best award winners includes: