Pendemonium is located in Fort Madison, Iowa - an old Victorian town on the banks of the Mississippi River and about 15 miles north of the Missouri line. Our quaint downtown is filled with specialty shops and Fort Madison is one of the few downtowns along the Mississippi that is directly along the river.
Every year, Frank takes lots of photos of Fort Madison during the holidays. We send them off to friends and family and enjoy looking at them ourselves, so this year we thought we would share them with you. We hope you'll enjoy seeing Fort Madison during the holidays as much as we do.
A new tradition started this year on Thanksgiving Eve with the introduction of over 20 beautiful lighted snowflakes in Riverview Park. These are set up so you can take a nice leisurely drive around the park through "Snowflake Lane". In 2007, the lighted floats from the annual parade will be displayed in Riverview Park instead of their current location, Central Park which is just about to be outgrown, no more room for floats!
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Also in Riverview Park is a very old Santa Fe locomotive. No 2913 to be exact for those of you who are train aficionados and pen aficionados! This is the first year since we've lived here that the train has been decked out for the holidays.
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| ATSF Engine 2913 | |
The Fort Madison Lighted Parade is an annual event on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Now in its eleventh year, the parade features over 50 lighted floats and is the largest lighted parade in Iowa. Usually about 10,000 people line Avenue G (this doubles our population!) to view the parade and they do this regardless of what sometimes are some downright frigid temps! This year, we had perfect weather for the parade, no wind and temps in the 60s, it was wonderful! Can you tell I'm not a cold weather person?!? This also brought out more people than usual and made it difficult to get photos of the parade itself.
Fear not, all of the floats are put on display in Central Park through the end of the year. This in itself attracts a lot of people, we called them rubberneckers on I-95 in Virginia, you know - the ones that cause traffic jams from looking at the accident in the opposite lanes! If you come to see the floats, drive carefully, slow vehicles ahead. It's far more enjoyable to pull on your mittens and walk through the park to see the floats up close. Central Park is just a few blocks from us, located between Avenue F and E with 9th and 10th Streets on either end. A full city block.
Here's the Pendemonium lighted float!
We were a little worried that Sheaffer was going to take their float to the landfill or do something equally bad with it, so this past summer, we bought the old Sheaffer float, after all, it did have a pen on it! It was in pretty bad shape. We thought we'd work on it and put it back in the parade in 2007. But a few weeks before the parade, Sheaffer asked if they could borrow the float back. They had 16,000 pens they wanted to hand out to people along the parade route, so out came the float! We did a rush job of getting the lights working, bit of dusting - OK, a lot of dusting! And general sprucing up and got it up and running in time for the parade. Phew! And most of this was made possible by our friend, Dan who is an electrician and all around good person to have around for oddball projects like making a lighted float presentable! Thanks Dan, we appreciate your help. All those people along the parade route were thrilled to get a free pen on parade night. Very nice gesture on behalf of Sheaffer.
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| Entrance and general overview of the floats in Central Park | |
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| If you subscribe to any of our e-newsletters, you've heard me ramble on about The Ivy - food to die for and sure to ruin any diet! Our Annual Tri-States Rodeo and The Riverfront Business District. These floats will probably ring familiar bells with you. | ||
 | Kempker's Hardware Store
If you live in a small town, you have one of these stores, they have everything! |
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Tri-State Auctions
I'm always hopeful I find good pens at their auctions. |
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Knights of Columbus |
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Hall's Towing
No, they don't tow cars, they tow barges up and down the river. I always call them tug boats, but everyone tells me to say tow boat. |
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Holme's Excavating did a great job on this bulldozer float |
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Johnson Trucking
If you do any traveling at all in the Midwest, you've probably seen Johnson semis on the road. |
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Coldwell Bankers
Coldwell Bankers float actually has a Burlington, Iowa (about 15 miles north) landmark, commonly referred to as the "H Bridge" that crosses the Mississippi from Burlington to Gulfport, IL. |
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This patriotic float belongs to Rich Mohrfeld, the man behind the parade! If not for Rich and all his efforts, there would be no parade. This float, when mobile has fireworks that shoot out the top, very cool! |
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Fort Madison Bank and Trust
the oldest bank in Iowa |
During the holidays, the buildings along Avenue G, the main drag through downtown Fort Madison are all outlined across the rooftops with white lights, it's really quite stunning to see five blocks of outlined buildings.
 | Photo taken from corner of Avenue G and 9th Street looking east toward the downtown area. Note the restored Fox Theater on the left. |
 | Photo taken from corner of Avenue G and 7th street looking west into downtown area |
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Photo taken from Avenue G and 7th street looking east. Pendemonium is on your left in about the center of the block. |
Most of the shops go all out for the holidays and it's fun to take a stroll and just look at all the window displays.
While not a shop, the Fox Theatre is looking quite festive! | |
Jo Lynn Shoes |
Sweet Magnolia |
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Dana Bushong Jewelers
Dana Bushong was the man who did much of the engraving on Sheaffer Autograph Pens |
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| Under the Sun and Under the Sun Next Door - this expanded shop has the most delightful window displays and not just during the holidays either! | ||
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Remember When Antique Mall |
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The Ivy Bake Shoppe and Cafe
Look up! The second floor of this building is where W.A. Sheaffer assembled some of his very first pens |
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While it's nice that WA made pens in this building, the food they serve inside is definitely worth a visit! |
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Dodd's Printing and Stationery
Fort Madison's 100 year old plus good old fashioned office supply and stationery store. |
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That's us! |
You'll have to bear with us to see the rest of the north side shop windows and stroll with us back down the south side - bit chilly out, plus the camera batteries zonked out! We also still have to get back to the snowflakes, the old Santa Fe Locomotive properly attired in white lights and we hope to get a few photos on the Annual Christmas Walk - a tour of five Victorian homes in Fort Madison that is a fund raiser for Old Settlers Park, another old city park in town.
It took us a few days, but we finished up photos of the shop windows on on the North side of Avenue G
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Forget Me Not Antiques & The Wild Pear
Antiques, very creative home decor and vintage clothing |
There are still some shop windows missing on the north side, mostly because .... we either forgot (oops!) or they just didn't come out well. To any of my downtown neighbors who got left out, it's nothing personal!
This next group of shop windows are all on the south side of Avenue G (the river side). The tour starts at 9th Street going east toward 6th Street.
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Aerodome Park Gazebo
Aerodome is the name of the original theater that was once here, burned many, many years ago and is now a delightful little park with the gazebo and beautiful gardens. |
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Schnitzelbank Furniture Annex |
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Parrish Photographers |
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Stage Two Clothing - cute teddy bears! |
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Schnitzelbank Furniture sells Amish made furniture that is stunning, along with an array of nice home accessories |
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The Avenue - you can't see it in this photo, but The Avenue has an old fashioned candy counter with to die for chocolate truffles. |
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The Bookmark - our local, very excellent book store and Frank's favorite place |
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Jen & Kendra's Unique Boutique - For Posh Pooches! |
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The Colony Shop |
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Ameriprise |
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Art and Frame Shop - Bob does great frame work, a real pro |
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Mississippi Valley Screen Printing |
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6th and Avenue G Antiques
I remember having an aluminum Christmas Tree when I was growing up, do you? |
A few more holiday photos of some shops just off the main business district of Avenue G
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Shabby Sheik Antiques
7th St between Avenues F and G |
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The Greenhouse
Avenue H and 11th Street |
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Old Brewery Antiques
Avenue H near 10th Street |