Preservation Iowa Announces Most Endangered Properties, including The White Springs Supper Club near McGregor

Preservation Iowa has designated 6 properties in Iowa for 2026 Most Endangered Designations.  Here are the 2026 Most Endangered Properties: 

Holliwell Covered Bridge, Madison County  

Meyers Farmstead District within Pleasant Grove Heritage Park, Lisbon, Linn County 

White Springs Supper Club, McGregor, Clayton County 

Riverton Chautauqua Pavilion, Fremont County 

Trinity Church, Forest City, Winnebago County 

100-102 N. Main Street, Conrad, Grundy County  

Preservation Iowa’s Most Endangered Property program began in 1995 and was implemented to  educate Iowans about the special buildings and historic sites that are slowly and gradually slipping  away from us. Over the past 30 years, Preservation Iowa has designated over 200 archaeological  sites, commercial buildings, homes, churches, landscapes and a variety of other properties in  over 70 Iowa counties. 

The Most Endangered Properties program helps to bring to the public’s attention the risks to a  designated historic property and introduces owners of an endangered property to preservation  advocacy and resources that can help preserve their historic property. Additionally, there have  

been interest groups who have been able to use the designation as a mechanism to leverage other  financial resources to restore and preserve properties. For more information about the Most  Endangered Program, check out Preservation Iowa’s website at www.preservationiowa.org or  contact Preservation Iowa at info@preservationiowa.org. 

The White Springs Ballroom opened in 1936 on Hwy.  

18 just west of McGregor. It was the idea of Archie Fritz who  

wanted to capitalize on interest in the white sand caves located  

in the cliff in the back of his property. The hand-hewn caves  

were originally built to provide cold beer storage for the West  

McGregor Brewery that began operation on the site in 1857  

and operated until the late 1800s. As early as 1933, Fritz started  

work to make the caves accessible to visitors including hanging  

electric lights in the caves. The two-story building Fritz  

constructed on the foundations of the old brewery originally had a ballroom on the second floor and a  tavern on the first floor. In the 1940s, ads in newspapers across northeast Iowa advertised the visiting  bands for weekly Saturday night dances.  

Erwin and Ethel Mann purchased the business in 1949. By the mid-1960s, the focus was more as a  dining establishment rather than a dance hall and had been renamed the White Springs Supper Club. An  article in the July 26, 1967 Arlington Progressive noted that Mrs. Mann was famous for her Hickory  Smoked Barbeque Ribs. For decades, the White Springs Supper Club was a dining destination and a social  gathering place for northeast Iowa. After Ethel Mann’s death in 2004, there were a few attempts to  continue the legacy of the supper club but today it remains closed and empty.  

In addition to the Supper Club building, the site currently also includes the original sand caves, the  brick house of former brewer Michael Klein (c. 1895) and a stone garage that was formerly a stable. Since the closure of the supper club, the buildings on the property have fallen into disrepair and are  in danger of being demolished. A portion of the roof of the former stable has already collapsed. The  future of the property remains uncertain.