Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Essex, IA

Essex is a city in Page County in southwestern Iowa, located near the East Nishnabotna River.

Essex was platted in 1870 in Pierce Township as a station town of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad arrived in 1871, the same year its depot opened.

Essex was incorporated on January 20, 1876.

The 2020 census counted 722 people in Essex, living in 339 households, down from 884 residents in 2000.

Essex's population peaked at 1,001 in 1980 and has declined in every census since.

Essex's brick Iowan's Hotel, built in 1906 and now run as the Railroad Inn bed and breakfast, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009; it replaced the earlier Lindel Hotel, which had served rail travelers since 1878.

Just outside Essex, the Pierce Creek Recreation Area covers 361 acres bought by the Page County Conservation Board in 1979, with a 33-acre pond and one of its two campgrounds reserved for equestrian campers, stalls included.

Essex has its own in-town green space at Anderson Park, which offers a basketball court.

Essex's public schools are operated by the Essex Community School District.

Essex was home to two pioneers of homemaker radio: Jessie Young, widely regarded as the first of the radio homemakers, and Leanna Field Driftmier, who pioneered the Kitchen-Klatter broadcast and magazine.