Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Arbor Hill, Iowa

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. (non-admin closure) Ambrosiawater (talk) 12:53, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Arbor Hill, Iowa[edit]

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All evidence is that this was a post office and nothing more, with the very slight exception of a "road" of the same name which leads to a couple of stray houses; it really appears to be a glorified driveway. Other than that I get references to prize pigs and the like, and a variety of lists of placenames. Not a notable place, and the article already says pretty much anything that can be said, true or false. Mangoe (talk) 18:19, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Iowa-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 18:25, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Geography-related deletion discussions. Spiderone^{(Talk to Spider)} 18:55, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Lippincott's Gazetteer says that it's a post office. There's passing mention of one person living there in Kilburn's 1842 History of Adair County, Iowa, cited in the article at hand, and no other significant history that I can find. Hair's 1865 Iowa State Gazetteer tells us that Harrison Township, Adair County, Iowa was the actual place that the post office was in. I agree. This is another false "unincorporated community" article and the true subject is not notable. Uncle G (talk) 20:53, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - Newspapers.com brings up this, which refers to it as a spot on the map that turned out to just be a narrow spot on the road with nothing there. Also found a passing mention to J. F. Pease's store burning down, a passing reference to an Arbor Hill in a different county (Adams Co.), and some stuff about an amateur baseball team named Arbor Hill. Not finding any indication that this is notable. Hog Farm _Talk 22:42, 19 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Comment - [1] [2] [3] - It's definitely a place that exists as it's currently the location of a debated wind farm and controversial solar project. There's also plenty of mentions in different farming directories from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance in 1904 someone there had a registered Chester White swine. [4], and in 1887 some farmers got a patent for an upgrade to a threshing machine as well[5]. Big time doings for a small farming community. The reason I'm not voting is I don't know if this is enough for notability of the location. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 13:50, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
- Two of those are a modern thing that may not have any relationship to this purported "unincorporated community", and a wind farm is not a community. Another one of those is solely someone's postal address, which aligns with this being a post office. The reason that I and others are scouring history books, gazetteers, government reports, railway commission rulings, history books of resorts and springs, and suchlike on all these articles is to find something that actually documents the place. It's not enough to phrase match someone's postal address. We need to be able to actually write an article in accordance with content policy. First of all, we need to even identify what it is. Can you cite a source specifically identifying this as a village, a water pump, a crossroads, a hill, a post office, a railway station, a vineyard, a farm, a mine, someone's house, or any of the other things that "unincorporated community" has turned out to be? Because I can point to page 88 of Hair's gazetteer, aforecited, which says outright "ARBOR HILL is a post office in Harrison Township", as well as to Lippincott's and Kilburn's History which agree. It is a post office. Where's the in-depth documented history and geography et al. of this post office?
  "unincorporated community" means and identifies nothing, and is a huge red flag, thanks to the mass GNIS import problem. The pig farmers most likely lived in Harrison Township.
  Uncle G (talk) 15:30, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Keep. I'm the original author of the article. I was able to find plenty of references for this community, and the idea that it was "only a post office" is not supported by any of these sources. References indicate there were more than 20 businesses in Arbor Hill, and although there isn't much there now (according to the above linked newspaper article), the community was noted in its time (at least between the 1800s and 1933-ish). The USGS still recognizes the community, and it appears on USGS quad maps (one official USGS quad is named after Arbor Hill).

Notability is not temporary. I was able to add considerable sourced content to the article, and the Iowa Ghost Towns link states a resident in Arbor Hill has between 200-300 historic photos of the community, some of which could eventually be added to the article (I'd love to do it, and will reach out). I was similarly able to fill out single-digit unincorporated communities previously, here and here. Arbor Hill seems notable to me. :) Firsfron of Ronchester 06:39, 21 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Missvain (talk) 00:04, 27 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Missvain (talk) 22:40, 3 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Keep per the improvements made by Firsfron of Ronchester RickH86 (talk) 11:50, 4 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.