Mount Pleasant’s Union Block building is being recognized as an important historical location. This year’s Partners in Preservation: Main Streets campaign has selected the Union Block as one of 20 sites competing for a share of $2 million in grant money. This year’s campaign celebrates the history of women across America. Belle Babb Mansfield, the nation’s first female lawyer, was sworn-in inside of the historic building on Mt. Pleasant’s square. Mansfield would go on to become active in the women’s suffrage movement, including chairing the first Women’s Suffrage Convention in Mount Pleasant in 1870. According to Mount Pleasant Director of Main Street Lisa Oetken, Mansfield’s story is just beginning to be told, “We discovered her ties to the Union Block Building and are trying to start educating people, especially young women, about the history that is so rich here in southeast Iowa.”

Partners in Preservation was created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express. The contest is a community-based partnership to engage the public in preserving historic places. To vote visit http://voteyourmainstreet.org/.