The Terrell Mansion – From Tea To A Red Ball To The Mayflower.

Our story begins in 1838 with an entrepreneur from Virginia named Walter Terrell (pictured above). Terrell ventured up the Mississippi River from New Orleans into Iowa Territory, eventually landing in Iowa City, where, on December 15, 1840, he became the first person to obtain an Iowa Territorial permit to build a dam and a grist mill.

A man with many investments, Walter Terrell soon returned south to New Orleans where he closed out his business interests before permanently relocating to Iowa City – where he began his Iowa River mill project just north of the city (see pic below).

**“A Distant View of Iowa City”** (from the north) as sketched by **George H. Yewell** in **1855**. In the bottom left corner notice **Walter Terrell’s mill**. Click here to read more about George H. Yewell.

In 1843, Walter Terrell – with the help of a skilled carpenter, the Irish immigrant William Windrem – built an extensive two-section dam and a three-story grist mill on the Iowa River just north of Iowa City – what is today, directly in front of the Mayflower Apartments. As you can see from the details above, between 1841 and 1844, there were three dams/grist mills built in Johnson County, with Terrell’s Mill being the first on the Iowa River. Read more details here.

Walter Terrell’s dam on the Iowa River was built in two sections, both connecting to a small island in the middle of the Iowa River. You can read more about The Island here. On the right (above) is Terrell’s grist mill – which, for nearly 25 years (1844-1867), was one of the busiest grain mills in Iowa. You can read more about Walter Terrell and his big impact in early Iowa City here.

*Gilbert R. Irish wrote an extensive historical overview on Walter Terrell in 1896.*

Walter Terrell’s Mill prospered for nearly forty years (1844 – 1881), both under Terrell’s leadership, and after he sold the business in 1867. As G.R. Irish records for us (above), Terrell married Margaret T. Crew in 1850, and by 1851, Terrell had constructed one of the finest homes in Iowa City. So now, on this page, I’d like to share some of the interesting stories surrounding this fine old mansion’s 114 years, serving the people of Johnson County…

**The Walter Terrell Mansion was built in 1851 and was long-considered one of the finest homes in Iowa City.** Between 1851 and 1923, three generations of Terrell’s lived in the mansion which stood adjacent to Terrell’s Mill and Dam. Walter and his first wife, Margaret T. Crew (married 1850), along with their daughter, Mary A. Terrell, were the first occupants, and when Margaret died suddenly in 1853, Walter remarried her older sister, Jane T. Crew (1854), and the couple lived there until their deaths – Walter (1887), and Jane (1888).

Walter’s daughter, Mary A., graduated from the SUI School of Law in 1877, and married the Iowa City banker, Euclid Sanders. After living a few years in the west, the Sanders returned to Iowa City, making the mansion one of Iowa City’s most-visited spots for social gatherings.

As for Terrell’s Mill & Dam, Walter Terrell sold his business to Jacob Sam in 1867, and, soon after, Sam re-sold it to Jacob J. Deitz & Joseph Hammer, who ran the mill until a massive flood nearly destroyed it in 1881. Soon after that flood, Walter’s second wife, Jane, and his daughter, Mary A. re-purchased the business for $5,000, but after another flood, in 1903, the badly-damaged dam was donated to the University, and in 1906, the city purchased much of the remaining Terrell land for $10,000 – turning it into the new Iowa City City Park. Read more here.

Mary & Euclid Sanders’ daughter, Mary T. Sanders, was the third generation to live in the Terrell mansion, but after she married Count Adam Kulikowski of Chicago in 1915, the couple sold the property to Melissa Dunham in 1923.

Prior to her purchase of the Terrell/Sanders Mansion, Melissa Dunham (who was also known as Mrs. E.J. Dunham) opened The Pagoda Tea Shop in downtown Iowa City – just south of the Pentacrest. As you can see from the article and ad (above) from the September 2nd & 4th, 1920 editions of The Iowa City Daily Press, The Pagoda opened on Sunday, September 5, 1920 on the second floor of the Sueppel Building, located at 11 E. Washington Street.

Business must have been good, because records indicate that Mrs. Dunham re-branded her expanding business as Mrs. Dunham’s Dinner Shop, and moved it into The Burkley Imperial Hotel (above), which was located at nearby 9 E. Washington Street prior to her 1923 purchase of the Terrell/Sanders Mansion…

The August 21, 1923 edition of The Iowa City Press-Citizen features a story on Mrs. E.J. Dunham’s new business venture – the purchase of the Walter Terrell/Euclid Sanders homestead and the opening of The Red Ball Inn – a boarding house, restaurant, and dance hall, all located on the lush grounds surrounding the mansion. Records show that Dunham renovated much of the home and added a large ballroom on the east side of the building.

The name: The Red Ball Inn comes from the mansion’s location on North Dubuque Street. In the 1910’s, as automobiles were replacing horse-drawn vehicles, the demand for reliable roads was a high priority. One of the first “hard-surfaced” highways across Iowa was the Red Ball Route – eventually running from St. Paul, Minnesota to St. Louis, Missouri. Here in Johnson County, the Red Ball Route – which was marked using a red ball on all highway signage – ran directly through downtown Iowa City – entering into town from the north on North Dubuque Street (see map below).

So, it was only natural that Mrs. Dunham chose the name: The Red Ball Inn – a name that stuck with the mansion long after the highway was renamed Iowa Highway 218. You can read more about The Red Ball Route here.

***In 1928, five years after The Red Ball Inn opened, a topographical survey map of the area surrounding the Terrell/Sanders Mansion was drawn up.***

In 1929, the Great Depression hit, and by 1933, Mrs. Dunham was having great difficulty keeping The Red Ball Inn afloat financially. Some records indicate that she closed the Inn around 1933, and in the June 13, 1936 edition of The Press-Citizen, we find an ad (below left) for a Private Sale where Mrs. Dunham is selling the Inn’s entire contents.

It appears that the Inn stay closed until April 1937, when ads – like the one above right – began appearing in The Press-Citizen once more. Records show that George & Stella Coan – who also owned a tavern near the Iowa City Airport – purchased the Inn and were attempting to make a go of it once more…

The October 16, 1937 edition of The Iowa City Press-Citizen indicates that the Coans were breaking Iowa liquor laws by selling a variety of alcohol beverages at The Red Ball Inn. The headline says it all – War Is Declared on ‘Bootleggers’…

By the first part of 1938, George and Stella Coan were in hot water with the law (see two articles below), and by New Year’s Eve 1938, a new manager – Scott E. Willson – is heading up The Red Ball Inn…

Records are a bit unclear, but Scott E. Willson must not have been at The Red Ball Inn very long, because in the April 15, 1939 edition of The Press-Citizen (see below left), we see that J. Kobes is advertising for the newly-renamed Red Ball Inn. In an attempt to completely separate the Inn from the Coan “bootlegger” scandal, the new name is: The Mayflower Inn.

Jake (Jacob) Kobes, Sr. and his wife Fannie (Elvira) Kobes (pictured below) ran The Mayflower Inn from 1939-1944. It’s said that Fannie was the one who came up with the new name for the mansion: The Mayflower Inn. Like its predecessor, The Mayflower specialized in hosting parties, clubs, organizational meetings, and special events. Apparently, the cadets of the U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School had a club that met regularly at The Mayflower when the Kobes operated the Inn.

The Kobes sold The Mayflower Inn in 1944 to Charles & Grace James, who operated the Inn from 1944 to 1951. Below, Jake Kobes, Jr. shows off a beautiful painting of The Mayflower Inn, taken from his late father’s large collection of restaurant memorabilia.

According to Iowa City historian, Irving Weber, Charles & Grace James successfully ran The Mayflower Inn from 1944 to 1951, at which time they sold it to Fred & Dorothy Carey – who kept the old mansion’s traditions alive until 1965. Below – on September 7, 1960, The Press-Citizen reported that The Red Ball Inn’s first owner – Melissa Dunham – had died at age 82.

Which brings us now, to May 29, 1965, and the sad news that The Mayflower Inn is about to see its last party. In this article from The Press-Citizen, Dorothy Carey announces that the last public event to be held in the dear old lady – the Terrell/Sanders Mansion – will be on Wednesday, June 2, 1965…

And with one last hurrah, on June 2, 1965, this iconic Iowa City home – built in 1851 – closed, and within one year, was torn down and replaced by a large apartment complex that still stands today. The only remaining piece of our story is the name itself – The Mayflower. Below, Irving Weber tells us the story of how the transition occurred…

The Mayflower opened in 1966 as a privately-owned apartment complex. The University of Iowa began leasing portions of the facility in 1979 and acquired the full space in 1981. The building spans 326,000 square feet and includes 278 units, home to more than 1,000 students. In 2023, the University announced that it was planning to sell the building, but because of increased enrollment, kept The Mayflower as a student dorm during the 2024-25 school year. Who knows what the future holds for this 57-year-old building? Certainly, she has a long ways to go to keep up with her predecessor who stood on this site for nearly 115 years!

In closing, allow me to share two articles from Iowa City historian – Irving B. Weber. The first comes from December 5, 1987, and it shares Weber’s remembrances of Mrs. Dunham’s Pagoda Tea Room, plus a number of facts about the Terrell/Sanders Mansion. The second article was published twelve years earlier, on January 15, 1975, and was part of Weber’s How’s Your History IQ? series. Here, Weber gives a wonderful overview of the long history of Iowa City’s iconic Terrell/Sanders Mansion…