(Radio Iowa) – A group led by a retired employee of the State Historical Society’s library and archives in Iowa City is suing to try to stop a plan to close the facility in mid-2026. The lawsuit says many of the artifacts that are being moved to the State Historical Museum in Des Moines were donated with the condition that they be accessible in Iowa City. Adam Steen, a Republican candidate for governor, is the former director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, the agency that oversees Historical Society operations. “Just a couple of days ago a group out of Iowa City got up and filed a lawsuit against me for shutting down a wasteful building that was wasting millions of your tax dollars.”

State officials say the building needs 750-thousand dollars in repairs and they announced the closure of the Centennial Building in downtown Iowa City in mid-June as a budget-cutting move. Steen says nobody knew about the building before its closure was announced.”Dig into the details. I’m preserving the history of our state by moving artifacts to Des Moines and I’m deaccessioning artifacts to local historical societies and the left is suing me because they’re saying I’m overstepping my bounds,” Steen says. “That is not true, but they’re coming after me because I’m speaking the truth.”

The lawsuit filed against Steen and other state officials cites a state law that says the state must maintain historical research centers in both Des Moines and Iowa City. Mary Bennett, who worked at the Iowa City center for nearly five decades, leads the Save Iowa History Coalition. Bennett says the center has been a regional hub used by historians, University of Iowa students and kids doing history projects — and moving records, books and letters that date back to the Civil War out of the building will limit direct access to the material. The lawsuit says the State Historical Building in Des Moines doesn’t have enough climate-controlled space to properly house documents in the Iowa City collection.