Did you know Clinton, Iowa, could still be a small village named New York? The first settler in the area, Joseph Butler, platted the town of New York in 1836, one of several clustered on the west bank of the Mississippi River. By 1839, it consisted only of a small group of cabins, several stores and a tavern.

New York changed very little throughout the 1840’s while surrounding communities continued to develop. All this drastically changed in 1855 when the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad altered its plans for a river crossing from nearby Lyons to Little Rock Island, adjacent to the settlement of New York. The Iowa Land Company purchased this settlement and quickly renamed it Clinton in honor of the governor of New York State, DeWitt Clinton.

The railroad and the Mississippi continue today to provide economic growth, helping Clinton to prosper as an industrial center. A growing list of products and services are now delivered to all parts of the nation and the world.

Construction of single-family homes in the Clinton area is at a 25-year high. New sub-divisions are opening up in the area and more families are finding that it makes sense to live here. “More home for the money” rings true for housing in all price ranges.

Today, Clinton is one of Iowa’s “Great Places,” a designation recently received from the Governor’s Vision Iowa program.