Runnells, IA

Runnells occupies a compact corner of the Des Moines–West Des Moines metropolitan area, in southeastern Polk County near the edge of central Iowa’s larger urban network. The 2020 census counted 457 residents, and the city’s post office remains at 112 Brown Street. Runnells covers roughly four-tenths of a square mile, so the post office and municipal streets provide clear civic reference points in a city that is small in footprint as well as population. Its setting places a distinctly local town grid inside the broader Des Moines region.

ATTRPopePompus / CC BY-SA 4.0

Runnells incorporated on May 21, 1903, and was named for John S. Runnells, an editorial writer for the Iowa State Register and private secretary to Governor Samuel Merrill. That origin gives the city a small piece of Polk County’s political and newspaper history. Today, the useful orientation is straightforward: Runnells is a 457-person city with its own postal address, a compact street plan, and a direct place in the Des Moines–West Des Moines metro. Brown Street and the post office show how civic life remains legible at this scale.