After twelve years of considering proposals for a new hotel or the extensive remodeling of one of the old existing hotels, a group of Ames business men organized the Ames Improvement Company to carry out the community's desire to have a hotel that would meet not only immediate needs, but meet the future needs of a growing city.  A successful venture was finally assured.  Parley Sheldon, banker and perennial mayor of Ames, H. L. and A. H. Munn, lumberyard owners, contracted for the hotel's construction in June of 1915.  Sheldon and the Munns remained the owners until a major interest was sold to Tagney-McGinn Hotels in 1926. The Ames Improvement Association was involved in arranging for leasing and management.

Ground was broken in late 1915 and the Sheldon-Munn Hotel was formally opened on May 31, 1916.  Dean C. F. Curtiss was toastmaster on the occasion of a formal dinner that evening.  Dean E. W. Stanton spoke on The Town and the College and Harvey Ingham of the Des Moines Register spoke on Greater Iowa.  There were other dignitaries on the agenda that evening too, and the new modern social and service center of Ames was very properly launched.

With its four floors of 72 fine guest rooms, the hotel provided a large ballroom on the fourth floor, a private dining room on third, various meeting rooms, sales display rooms, a four chair barber shop in the east basement, a large main dining room on first and a separate grill or coffee shop on the main street side. All dining facilities were served by the large kitchen under the direction of six full-time chefs.

The new hotel was to be the meeting place for town and college, for there was no Memorial Union then.  The hotel was booked months ahead for social events, fraternity and sorority dances.  Professional meetings of many kinds met there.  According to Mrs. Rogers it was not uncommon for the Sheldon-Munn to be the site of a ballroom dance, a private dinner party on third, a smoker in the basement, a convention group somewhere, and a main dining room full of off the road or street guests, all at the same time in those days.  In 1925 the American Legion relocated its post club room to the basement of the hotel.

The success of the hotel prompted an expansion, so the lots west of the hotel were purchased in 1926. The $85,000 addition, a close match to the original structure, was built by Ames building contractor Ben Cole.  When completed in February of 1927, the hotel portion had been doubled and there was room for two more, for a total of six, bays for commercial enterprises on the ground floor.  - more views of the Sheldon Munn Hotel -

click to enlarge image

click to enlarge image