Disco Fever and Retail Revolution: How the 1970s Reshaped the Bluffs

The 1970s saw a new courthouse arrive on the scene, an old courthouse sent off to California, and an old jail taken over by the Historical Society. The decade also witnessed the biggest shift in local retail in the city’s history: the end of downtown as the retail center, the opening of the downtown mall, and the creation of the strip malls. And it was all set to a soundtrack of a new urban danceable genre of music designed for nightlife, creating a cultural divide with those who considered themselves serious rock and rollers.

The demise of downtown and the rise of disco. This was a decade to remember.

This program is free and open to the public in partnership with the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County.