Your Guide to Buying a Home in Muscatine, IA

Buying a Home in Muscatine, Iowa

Muscatine is located in Muscatine County

 Muscatine is located in East Central Iowa on the picturesque banks of the Mississippi River. We are just fifteen miles south of the nation's only east/west transcontinental interstate highway, Interstate 80, and astride U.S. 61, a major north/south route through the central United States.

Muscatine is a city full of pleasant surprises. We are an easy one-day drive from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Omaha, Indianapolis, and just hours from Des Moines and Chicago. Our location has given us strategic importance for over 150 years. Once the "Pearl Button Capital of the World," Muscatine boasts a stable economic base that would be the envy of areas many times our population. Moreover, our net of employment reaches out to communities on both sides of the Mississippi, making us a strong economic force in the Iowa/Illinois bi-state area.

Muscatine is home to five corporate headquarters, Bandag,Inc., Grain Processing Corporation, Kent Feeds,Inc., The Stanley Group and HNI Corporation, a Fortune 1000 Company. Muscatine is also the home of two major plants of Fortune 500 Companies, Monsanto and HJ Heinz L.P., as well as many other well known companies including IPSCO Steel, BT Prime-Mover, Carver Pump, Allsteel, and Musco Sports Lighting. Muscatine is picturesquely located on the banks of the Mississippi River, just fifteen miles south of the nation's only east/west transcontinental interstate highway, I-80, and astride U.S. Hwy 61, a major north/south route through the central United States.

Muscatine has long been known as the “Pearl City” and was the largest fresh water pearl button manufacturing center in the world. The pearl buttons were made from mussel shells obtained from the Mississippi River and its tributaries. John Beopple, an immigrant from Germany cut his foot on a clam shell while swimming in the Mississippi River. He noticed the shell had a pearl color, was quite hard, and seemed ideal for buttons. He rigged an old foot-power lathe and manufactured a dozen buttons, which he sold to a Muscatine store for ten cents. Those were the first freshwater pearl buttons made and were the beginning of the Muscatine button industry. During the 1890’s, the manufacture of pearl buttons began to replace other industries in the community of Muscatine.

 The Pearl City and Melon City Cultural District in Muscatine has the immediate goals and objectives to focus on event planning, financial support, participant and new member recruitment, and community growth. The community has a large collection of cultural organizations. An additional goal is to provide a more coordinated event planning process so that the many performances and activities work in a complementary fashion, allowing all events to be more successful. Improvements include installation of period lighting in the historic downtown area, sidewalk enhancements and improvements, landscaping in the downtown, riverfront and Mark Twain overlook, additional parking created and reconfigured, walking tours and historic signed designed and developed, artistic murals installed on buildings, and the erection of new community art.

The Muscatine Community School District serves approximately 5,500 students in the city and surrounding rural areas of Muscatine. The district ranks 10th in student population among Iowa's 376 public school districts. Our size allows us to provide a full curriculum with extras that smaller districts are not able to offer, yet small enough to offer personal touches. Building level parent groups are quite active and every building publishes a monthly newsletter.