FY2022

Health Care: The City has top-notch health care with the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City VA Medical Center, and Mercy Iowa City. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) is a 700+ bed comprehensive academic medical center and represent more than 200 outpatient clinics and care areas. In addition to providing primary care, UIHC offers services in more than 200 specialties. The Iowa City VA Medical Center (ICVAMC) services are available to more than 184,000 veterans in Eastern Iowa, Western Illinois, and Northern Missouri. ICVAMC provides a broad range of inpatient and outpatient health care services. Mercy Iowa City is a regional referral center and community hospital serving southeast Iowa. Mercy services include heart and vascular care, orthopedic care, maternity care, cancer care, digestive services, general surgery, emergency care, and more. Culture: The City hosts a jazz festival each year that attracts music enthusiasts from both near and far. The annual Iowa Arts Festival features the state's best visual art, music, and food. Iowa City is also home to several community theaters, including Riverside Theatre's Shakespearean stage. Located in City Park, this open-air theater presents shows under the stars. Iowa City is also home to the recently restored historic Englert Theatre downtown and also has a vibrant Iowa City Community Theatre. In Iowa City the University of Iowa’s Hancher Auditorium showcases Broadway productions and other entertainment events. History: Iowa City was created by an act of Legislative Assembly of the Iowa Territory on January 21, 1839, fulfilling the desire of Governor Robert Lucas to move the capital out of Burlington and closer to the center of the territory. Commissioners Chauncey Swan and John Ronalds met on May 1, 1839, in the small settlement of Napoleon, south of present-day Iowa City, to select a site for the new capital city. The following day the commissioners selected a site on bluffs above the Iowa River north of Napoleon, placed a stake in the center of the proposed site and began planning the new capital city. By June of that year, the town had been platted and surveyed from Brown Street in the north to Burlington Street in the south, and from the Iowa River eastward to Governor Street. While Iowa City was selected as the territorial capital in 1839, it did not officially become the capital city until 1841; after construction on the capitol building had begun. The capitol building was completed in 1842, and the last four territorial legislatures and the first six Iowa General Assemblies met there until 1857, when the state capital was moved to Des Moines.

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