Iowa City, Iowa - The Black Angel

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Address:
1000 Brown St., Iowa City, IA
Directions:
Lot 1, Block 24, Oakland Cemetery. I-80 exit 246. South on Hwy 1/Dodge St. for about 1.5 miles. Turn left onto Summit St., then right onto Dewey St., then left onto Brown St. to the Cemetery entrance. The Black Angel is in a ways, but straight in from the entrance.
Hours:
Daily 7:30-dusk (Call to verify)
Phone:
319-356-5105

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Iowa City, Iowa - The Black Angel
Go to the cemetery, kiss the angel statue, drop dead. Roadsideamerica.com Report...

Visitor Tips and News About The Black Angel

Following are The Black Angel reports and tips that were sent in by RoadsideAmerica.com visitors. Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip or update.

Iowa City, Iowa - Black Angel

The Black Angel statue in Iowa City featured on your site is cool, but your tipsters seem to have missed its literary fame...In W.P. Kinsella's 1986 novel, "The Iowa Baseball Confederacy," the Black Angel comes to life and plays right field in a baseball game of Biblical proportions.

Kinsella is also the author of "Shoeless Joe," the book that was made into "Field of Dreams," also featured on your site for Dyersville, Iowa. [David Williams, 09/11/2009]

Black angel. Iowa City, Iowa - Black Angel

On an eerie summer night (midnight) in mid-August, I tempted fate when I kissed The Black Angel. The statue stands approximately 12 ft tall from ground level to tip of her wing, so I ended up kissing her waist. Visitors are not welcomed after 9 pm, so we had to make a hasty exit as we were tailed into the site by an Iowa City patrol car. We took refuge behind Mrs. Bruegger's gravestone to avoid being detected for what seemed an inordinate length of time.(Sorry Mrs. B.) We had set off some motion detector lights by the front entrance that I think alerted them to our presence in the cemetery. Use the Brown St. entrance because it is a huge facility and you'd likely get lost if you didn't. [John Kershner, 09/22/2008]

Black Angel grave. Iowa City, Iowa - Black Angel Grave - The Kiss

I discovered the Black Angel of Iowa City right here on RoadsideAmerica.com. I took a trip out to Iowa a couple weeks ago and decided to check it out. It is beautiful AND spooky! It can be found in the back portion of Oakland Cemetery at the top of Brown St.

Legend has it that if you kiss the angel, you will die INSTANTLY. I debunked that myth! (...or maybe I just got lucky!)

The statue is made of bronze, and hence has turned black over the years. It is a European angel, not an American one, so its wings and head are lowered toward the grave above which it rests. It's gorgeous and worth checking out! [theALTERNAtraveler, 12/31/2007]

Iowa City, Iowa - Black Angel Statue

The black angel statue was built over a woman's grave, not a cheating husband's. The woman's name was Teresa Feldevert, and her son is buried next to her, but he died when we was 18, not as a child. There are many legends surrounding her, and people say you can feel her watching you when you walk away. She is a very interesting statue and you automatically get chills upon entering the grave yard and seeing her. [shannon, 07/20/2007]

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