Forty-four years ago, I was working in downtown Des Moines in a modernistic building designed by master architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. To me it was the Home Federal Savings and Loan building. I had only been there a few months as secretary to the head of advertising and public relations when the company became American Federal Savings and Loan due to a merger with a Cedar Rapids S&L.
That merger (or was it a take-over?) changed everything for me as well as a number of other employees. My boss was replaced. The new guy was originally from Red Oak so I figured we would get along, both being reared in small town, agriculture-centered, southwest Iowa. I was quickly disabused of that notion when he brought over his team from his former company, getting rid of everyone in the department except me. I knew he wanted his former secretary in my spot and he did everything he could to make my life miserable so I would leave. His tactics worked. As soon as I could find another job, I quit. (And went on to another good job/miserable boss, but that's another story.)
This postcard of the building (found online) shows how it looked when I worked there. The lobby area was for customers, the top floor was for the executives, the advertising/public relations office was on the second floor, right side in this photo. The church behind is St. Ambrose Cathedral.
What I remember about my time there - the people were congenial, I liked and got along with the women in my office. It was the era of gift-giving to entice customers to open a savings account or add to their accounts. Part of my department's job was making a display of those gifts in the lobby area and fetching premiums from the stash in the basement for the tellers to hand out.
In addition to our locked room of bounty down there, I also remember the huge computer which somehow involved punch cards. I didn't understand how it worked then and I still don't. (As an aside, remember when punched cards bore the warning: "Do not fold, spindle or mutilate"? How carefully we rules followers obeyed! Who today even knows what a spindle is?)
It was during the Home Federal/American Federal transition that our department was given the job of inventorying all the customer premiums we had on hand. The majority of those were dishes being stored upstairs in a warehouse on Court Avenue. It was a hot, dirty and, seemingly, never-ending task. Boxes of place settings were open, broken dishes were strewn about. We had to have as accurate a count as possible. (I think I had some of that brown stonewear, but I know I had a partial set of the 'gold' flatware and a large apple-shaped salad bowl with small serving-sized dishes; one of the benefits of working in the advertising department.)
Another thing I remember about working there was the quiet court yard of nearby St. John's Lutheran Church. On the days I wasn't shopping or running erands, it was a peaceful oasis where I could eat my lunch and read a book.
I don't know what happened to American Federal Savings and Loan after I left there, and, eventually, Des Moines, but the building is now the Catholic Pastoral Center. It was a story about the completion of a ten-million dollar restoration of the 'hidden-gem' of a building that triggered the memories of my time there.
