Post Office 52595 (University Park, Iowa)
University Park Post Office (photo by Brian McMillian)
University Park, Iowa – For those not familiar with ‘Iowa Backroads‘ and all of the fantastic information and pictures about the places we call home around the State of Iowa, your in luck because Brian McMillian has a website packed full of the history of our state.
Brian McMillian is the creator and publisher of ‘Iowa Backroads’, and he’s offered to send us 4 quick stories about our home county. Brian has other stories involving Mahaska County, and I invite you to enjoy the hard work and miles he has spent in helping to document our state. Here is the LINK to Mahaska County on Iowa Backroads. You can also join the Iowa Backroads Facebook page HERE.
by Brian McMillian
Postal service was established in the Mahaska County community of University Park less than a month after the town was founded and incorporated in April 1909. The town’s name was chosen because of Central Holiness University, which purchased 220 acres of land to establish its school in 1906. Central Holiness University saw a number of leadership and name changes before the Chicago Evangelic Institute bought the campus in 1951 and renamed the school Vennard College in 1959. Though University Park remains home to over 500 residents, there is no longer a higher education facility in the community as Vennard College closed in 2008.
