And so now we are living in the city, the limits having been extended during the winter. Boys, now lets wake up and have our say in city matters, lets elect a member to the city council the coming election. We are enough to carry the day. Then why not?

The I. A. C. Student, “And so now we are living,” 4 Mar 1893

The city had a special election on December 31, 1892 where an overwhelming majority (120 to 9) voted to annex the college and surrounding area. The city went from ending at Grand Avenue to a line that is now Campus Avenue, nearly doubling the land size and population of Ames. The annexation was made official on January 3, 1893, and this blurb from the Student appeared in the first issue of the spring term.

The Dinkey was creating a strong bond between the the college and city at the time, and the city likely wanted the nice population boost from the student population, which would also elevate Ames’ city classification by the state. At the time, there wasn’t much substantial building off of campus, so a lot of the annexed land was barren. The city soon took its own census, too. Students were roughly 20% of the 2,489 residents.