Anna Greenberg, my great grandmother, was born on February 2, 1892 in Dubuque, Iowa. She and her siblings were the first generation in their family to be born in the United States after her parents immigrated from Lithuania. This is the story of my quest to discover the place where she grew up.

Locating Anna’s Address

In the 1900 United States Federal Census and 1905 Iowa State Census, Anna’s family is recorded as living at 1065 17th Street in Dubuque’s Third Ward. Their neighbors have last names such as Goodman, Kline, Faber, Blummenthal, Feldstein — many of whom are listed as Russian-born (with a few from Germany; some of the neighbor children were, like Anna, born in Iowa). At the time, Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire, and accordingly, the Greenbergs are also listed as from Russia. 

But here’s the thing: If you plug the address listed in these census records into Google Maps, you’ll find it doesn’t exist. There is no such address as 1065 17th Street in Dubuque today. 

If you go to the area where that location might belong on a map, as I did in October 2025, you’ll see it is nestled among a railroad, highway, and watershed management system.

How can we make sense of this? Could there be an error in the address? Perhaps, but the houses near theirs in the censuses were located in the 1700 blocks of Maple and Cedar, which lends credibility to the accuracy of the address, since house numbers on those streets would match the numbered street they intersect, Jerry Enzel, author, local historian, and founder of the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, told me in conversation.

But today, Maple and Cedar are each about only one block long and located near 14th Street. I visited them, and saw a mix of modest homes and industrial buildings. Neither Maple nor Cedar extend to 17th Street today. 

Likewise, 17th Street doesn’t extend past the railroad tracks, which it would need to do to meet an imaginarily extended Maple and Cedar. 

But there is evidence that all of these streets looked exactly like this hypothetical, extended scenario 150 years ago. A Dubuque map from 1875 shows the grid in Ward 3 at that time looks substantially different than in 2025. 

Namely, if you zoom in, you can see that Maple and Cedar continue northward, extending between the railroad tracks and the Mississippi River. 17th Street also continues east across the railroad tracks, and intersects with Maple and Cedar. You can see exactly where 1065 17th St would be in the grid that existed in 1875. 

Where Did 1065 17th Street Go?

What could have happened to this little neighborhood? 

When I visited the site, I saw two factors that I suspected contributed to the demolition of that portion of the urban grid and the present-day absence of homes or business at that address. But the historical records reveal a different, hidden possibility.

First are human-driven urban planning trends. Chief among them was highway 61, which was built after WWII and runs to the east of Anna’s neighborhood. In many American cities, including Dubuque, the highways were routed through working class and immigrant neighborhoods. Homes were regularly demolished as part of that process. Related urban renewal projects in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in the demolition of buildings in historic neighborhoods, like the one in which Anna’s family lived, per Encyclopedia Dubuque.

Second are natural geographic factors, namely that the neighborhood was on a flood plain, and troubled by poor sanitation and watershed management until the Bee Branch Creek restoration project. Lower Bee Branch Creek, which runs along the western edge of Anna’s neighborhood, was completed in 2011, per the City of Dubuqe website. Due to catastrophic flooding, homes were abandoned and demolished through the years, including some as part of this restoration project. 

But when I read more about the history of the Jewish community in Dubuque, I learned about a synagogue at a familiar address (Maple Street, between 17th and 18th Streets) that was purchased and demolished to make room for the Dubuque Packing Company, which became one of the largest suppliers of kosher meat in the United States. A photograph taken by Chuck Avery of the Dubuque Packing Company site (now an undeveloped brownfield) confirms this is the area where I believe Anna lived.

It was the meat packing industry that took over her neighborhood.

Why Dubuque? Some History.

Anna’s parents — Joseph and Celia (Sideman) Greenberg — likely immigrated from Veisiejai, Litovskaja, Lithuania in the late 1880s (Veisiejai is known as Visei in Yiddish). 

Family history compiled by Sidney Sideman suggests Anna’s parents may have come along with Celia Sideman’s brothers, who followed their town Rabbi, Rabbi Joseph, from Lithuania to Dubuque. “[Jacob and David Sideman] located in Dubuque because the former Rabbi Joseph of Rutnistskes settled there. Rabbi Joseph’s sons established the Joseph Lumber Company in Chicago,” Sidney Sideman wrote.

The town Rabbi — and growing antisemetic violence in the region — provides some immediate context for the family’s move, but from the vantage of the twenty-first century, it’s puzzling to imagine how Yiddish-speakers living in nineteenth century Lithuania would have heard of Dubuque, Iowa, let alone decided to undertake the 4,500 mile journey to immigrate there of all places. 

It becomes more understandable when you consider that Dubuque’s reputation at that time was radically different than it is today. The Dubuque of the 1800s was a new city, having just been chartered in 1837. Known as “The Key City,” Dubuque had everything you could want when starting fresh – jobs, land, and (thanks to the river and railroads) relatively easy access to the rest of the United States, according to the Encyclopedia Dubuque and City of Dubuque website. 

But the boom wouldn’t last, and the Greenbergs wouldn’t stay. By the start of the 1900s, major industries like lead mining collapsed. According to community organizer and River Lights Bookstore manager Dena, many families left for Chicago and other cities around this time. 

The Greenbergs were among them. The 1910 United States Federal Census (when Anna was 18) records the family in Chicago.

Life on 17th Street

What was Anna’s life like at 1065 17th Street in the 1890s? 

Given the census records, Anna appeared to grow up surrounded by other Jewish families who mostly also immigrated from the Russian Empire. 

Anna’s dad, William Greenberg, is listed as a salesman. She was at school when the census was taken when she was 8 years old, so we know she recieved some education. Her older brother was named Joseph. Her three younger sisters were Libbie, Sophie, and Ida. 

The Greenbergs likely were members of Keneses Israel, a reform synagogue that Eastern European immigrants attended at the time. 

Per Encyclopedia Dubuque, “A second congregation, Knesses Israel (gathering or assembly of Israel), had opened on 15th and Elm possibly to serve recent arrivals from Poland, Russia and Lithuania whose liturgy and culture differed from earlier French and German settlers…In 1901, Kenesses Israel had 125 families and was meeting on 10th and Washington. Around that time, the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Society provided funds for the congregation to buy a lot and 2-story house on Maple between 17th and 18th, which they remodeled into a synagogue. The congregation, forerunner of Temple Beth El, lasted another 35 years until the DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY bought the property and, shortly after, demolished the building.”

Interestingly, the location of Temple Beth El’s forerunner appears to be very near or at the location the Greenbergs lived in 1900, contributing to a picture of a bustling Jewish immigrant neighorhood.

Knesses Israel exists today as Dubuque’s only remaining synagogue, Temple Beth El, according to materials on Temple Beth El’s website, which I was able to visit. 

Per their website, there are no temple records that could be used to confirm or disconfirm the suspicion that the Greenbergs were among the 125 member families at the turn of the twentieth century. 

Genealogist’s Note

This history was compiled during a vacation to Dubuque in October 2025. My kids had fall break, and friends had recommended a stay in the Driftless Area, so we booked an Airbnb. 

Then my dad, Bruce Goodman (son of Jane Yaker, daughter of Anna), mentioned that Anna Greenberg had lived in Dubuque. His comment inspired this account and little fall break side quest, where I got to draw on my background as an urban planner, researcher, and writer.