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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- Heartland History 101.

Throughout the month of May, KTVO is highlighting historical landmarks around southeast Iowa.

Ottumwa's Main Street business district is filled with historical buildings. Many are currently under renovation, including the Harvester Building...soon to renamed "The Hoffman Lofts."

The building at the corner of East Main Street and Jefferson, originally constructed in the late 1800s, has now been restored as the new KMGO radio building...and it's nearly completed. 

"Most of Main Street was built in the 1870s, 80s, and 90s. Many of those buildings have had new fronts put on them over the years," said Fred Zesiger, President of the Ottumwa Main Street Board of Directors.

"That's such an important part of Ottumwa's history in general. We really were the regional hub for the entire area. And there was such a wealth of history that goes along with Ottumwa, and the buildings are representational of that," said Cindy Woodbury, the Executive Director of Main Street Ottumwa.

Woodbury expressed the importance of historical preservation in the downtown business district.

"We've lost so many of those beautiful, old historic buildings...what we want to do is take what's there now and keep them from deteriorating any further," Woodbury said.

"When people come from out of town, usually they look at your downtown first, and it says a lot about the people that live in Ottumwa. So the better we can make downtown look, the better impression we give to outsiders, and I think that's really important...that downtown belongs to all of us. It's not this person's building or that person's building, but it belongs to the communities," Zesiger added.

Along Main Street Ottumwa, heartland history is still very much alive.