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LittleVillageMag.com
The Sightly Knoll Thousands have felt a sense of wonder at the Drake Municipal Observatory, whether they’re watching meteor showers or encountering ghosts.
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BY ELAINE IRVINE
he Drake Municipal Observatory is probably the only scientific facility of its kind more familiar to local golfers than local school kids. Since 1921, it’s sat between the green on the 17th hole of Waveland Golf Course and the tee of the 18th. It’s an anomalous presence among the fairways and the nearby tennis courts, like a relic of some alternative version of Des Moines. The bluff-colored limestone building is now behind a chain-link fence, the gates of which only open to the public when the observatory is hosting lectures or other events. The exterior of the building shows signs of disrepair, from small dings in the copper plating of the dome caused by errant golf balls to the increasingly decrepit outdoor observation deck, which is now closed because it’s no longer safe to walk on. As night falls, it’s easy to see how the observatory got its reputation as one of the most haunted places in the city. The decision to locate Drake’s observatory on the golf course was made by Daniel Morehouse, who taught astronomy at the university from 1900 until his death in 1941. A renowned astronomer, he gained an international reputation by discovering a comet while still in graduate school. During his life, Morehouse was involved in every aspect of the observatory. After his death, his devotion to it, and the fact his cremated remains are interred in the building, helped inspire many of the ghost stories that surround the observatory. When Morehouse arrived at Drake in 1897 as a 21-year-old transfer student from a college in Minnesota, the university already had a small observatory. It was located in the tower atop the Science Hall which was completed in 1891, only 10 years after Drake’s founding. 20 August 2022 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LVDSM5
Brittany Brooke Crow
The observatory was largely idle in its first few years, but by the time Morehouse enrolled it had a telescope that was state of the art for its day. Morehouse proved to be such an exceptional student while working on his bachelor’s degree, he was hired to teach physics and astronomy at Drake as soon as he graduated in 1900. Morehouse balanced his teaching duties with graduate studies, first at the University of Chicago, where he earned his master’s. It was while working at Chicago’s observatory at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, in September 1908, that Morehouse discovered a previously unidentified comet. He originally called it Comet C, but his colleagues renamed it Comet Morehouse, the name it still bears. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1914, Morehouse returned to Drake full time. In addition to teaching, he also served as Dean of Men. He proved such an able administrator he was appointed acting president in 1919 and given the job permanently in 1923. It was during his years as acting president Morehouse oversaw the construction of the Drake Municipal Observatory, his most lasting
legacy at the university and in the city. Even before Morehouse became acting president, Drake’s observatory atop Science Hall had become of limited use. It was always small, but at least it had a fairly clear view of the night sky. Or it did until the neighborhood around the university began to grow. Decades before “light pollution” became a common term, it was a problem for Drake’s original observatory. As neighborhoods around the campus grew, there was more and more artificial light at night from homes and businesses. It made stars less visible both for families in their backyards staring up at the sky and for the astronomers at Drake. And the problems went beyond the light and cramped space. Vibrations caused by passing streetcars rattling along their tracks interfered with some of the observatory’s delicate equipment. The need for a new observatory was obvious to Morehouse. So was the best location for it. Morehouse later told a colleague about walking in what was then Waveland Park shortly after graduating from Drake in 1900, and thinking
