good-looking, brick, 4000 sq. ft., two-story home steps from university with 25,000+ students in middle America; until recently, used with signage out front that mimicked signs of next-door educational neighbor. Scroll to page 4 to see that it was indeed the LDS Institute of Religion.

https://www.cbrep.com/listings/commercial/202104651/503-Melrose-Iowa-City-IA-52246

If it sells for asking price, TSCC reaps under $1m.

Being sold at this time, why?

Silly!! They outgrew it!

You can hear the church bursting at the seams!!!

This post jogged my memory to lookup the institute building near my old college. Looks like the church still owns that 2 story house conversion.

Ellensburg, Washington restored a 2 story house for an institute in the late 1960's. I was baptized in 1970 and attended institute classes and church there.

I was heavily involved in the Institute scene when I was in college. At the time it was quite enjoyable. It was a place where you could drop in at any time to find friends and chat. And we chatted about all sorts of things. SO here;s the question (no hearsay, please): are students at non-BYU schools allowed to talk about things like we did? Theology, current events, how to engage with the non-Mormon world. One suspects that the decline of the Institute system would be tied to ecclesiastical restrictions on what students could and could not talk about there.

My favorite Institute story is when one of my brothers, back in the '70's, said "The Institute of Religion is where they teach you about other religions then tell you what's wrong with them."