Article written for our internal newsletter, the KHronicle.
It was a beautiful Sunday morning for a walk down to La Venta, a new Colombian coffee shop, this past Memorial Day weekend. I happen to live right up the street, so I set out for a gorgeous walk down the hill with great views, birds chirping, and the sun shining. La Venta is located on 4th street right next to the Fenelon Place Elevator (or Fourth Street Elevator). It’s small inside, with a half dozen small tables, and a counter. Their offerings are truly no-frills, even no flavored syrups. However, they had flavored cold brews – lemon and orange – which piqued my interest as I’d never seen those on a menu before. I do love cold brew, and I recently tried the lemon flavored coffee at Doc’s Brew in Dubuque and liked it, so I went with their Lemon Cold Brew with some oatmilk. It was truly delicious, and I would highly recommend trying it if you love lemon and cold brew – it’s a great combination! Instead of getting a workout in and walking back up the hill to my house, I hopped on the Fenelon Place Elevator with a group of tourists (only $2 one way, just make sure you have cash!), and had to tell them the lore behind the elevator. Do you know it? I’m not sure the tourists believed me, but I’ve pulled this straight from their website, so don’t just take my word for it:
“Mr. J. K. Graves, a former mayor, …lived on top of the bluffs and worked at the bottom. Unfortunately, he had to spend half an hour driving his horse and buggy round the bluff to get to the top and another half an hour to return downtown, even though his bank was only two and a half blocks away. Mr. Graves liked to take half an hour for his dinner, then a half an hour nap, but this was im-possible because of the long buggy ride. As a traveler he had seen incline railways in Europe and decided that a cable car would solve his problem. He petitioned the city for the right to build… The original cable car, which was built for Mr. Graves’ private use, had a plain wood building, that housed a coal-fired steam engine boiler and winch. A wooden Swiss-style car was hauled up and down on two rails by a hemp rope… He had his gardener let him down in the morning, bring him up at noon, down after dinner and nap, and up again at the end of the work day. Before long, the neighbors began meeting him at the elevator asking for rides.” The Fenelon Place Elevator is the steepest and shortest railway in the world. You can read more on their website: History | Fenelon Place Elevator Company
If you’ve never ridden and you call yourself a Dubuquer, that’s a shame. The view from the top is gorgeous, well worth the unsettling rickety ride up the steep hill.