Welcome to Iowa Public Television! If you are seeing this message, you are using a browser that does not support web standards. This site will look much better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device. Read more on our technical tips page.

Iowa Public Television

 

Home » Video » Jan Fleming - Grotesques and Gargoyles

<p><strong>Note:</strong> If this video does not play, you may need to download the free <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Flash</a> video plugin for your web browser.</p> <p><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" target="_blank"><img alt="Get Adobe Flash Player" src="graphics/plugins/get_flash_player.gif" border="0" height="31" width="88"></a></p>

Jan Fleming - Grotesques and Gargoyles

Duration: 07:19

Historic preservationist, Jan Fleming, is engrossed in grotesques which are faces carved in stone on buildings scattered around Des Moines. Her fascination with them has caused her to write a book on the topic.

The 28 grotesque faces on the Polk County Courthouse are charming, funny and scary. We don't know much about the reason for the grotesque faces except that some are similar to faces in Europe called the "Green Man" because foliage is growing out of or around the face.

Jan has found very little documentation about the people who carved these remarkable faces. This story originally aired on Iowa Public Television in April of 2001.

Tags:

Post Date: May 13, 2009