New Vienna, IA

New Vienna is a Dubuque County city whose center still shows the German Catholic settlement that formed it. German families began arriving in the 1840s after coming west from Ohio, and Bishop Mathias Loras celebrated the first Mass in the village in 1846. The present St. Boniface church was dedicated in 1887 on Columbus Street, alongside its rectory, cemetery, and parish grounds. The St. Boniface of New Vienna Historic District also includes an 1898 stone water tower, a surviving piece of the city's early municipal infrastructure.

ATTRNheyob / CC BY-SA 4.0

Columbus Street still gathers several of the town's useful landmarks: St. Boniface at 7401 Columbus, the Heritage House Museum at 7396, and the local business boosters organization formed in 1978. New Vienna lies within Western Dubuque Community School District, a large rural district whose schools are centered in nearby communities such as Farley and Epworth. The church, museum, school connection, and water tower give New Vienna a clear local shape, with German-Iowa history visible in the buildings residents use and pass each day.