May's Island is a small island on the Cedar River, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Functioning as a civic center much like the Île de la Cité, it is the site of the Memorial Building, the Linn County Courthouse, and the county jail. The island plus an adjacent block was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The Crescent Warehouse Historic District is a 10.5-acre (4.2 ha) historic district in Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. The district is a collection of multi-story brick structures that formerly housed warehouses and factories. Most of the buildings have been converted into loft apartments. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (BCR&N) was a railroad that operated in the United States from 1876 to 1903. It was formed to take over the operations of the bankrupt Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Minnesota Railway, which was, in turn, the result of merging several predecessor lines, the construction of which began in 1869. The corporate headquarters were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and it had operations in Iowa and in Minnesota. It was succeeded by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway.
The Linn County Courthouse is located on May's Island in the middle of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. It, along with the Veterans Memorial Building and two other buildings, is a contributing property to the May's Island Historic District that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The courthouse is the third building the county has used for court functions and county administration.
The Iowa Building is a historic structure located in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 2015 it was included as a contributing property in the Cedar Rapids Central Business District Commercial Historic District.
The Witwer Grocery Company Building, also known as the Osada Building or more recently as the Bottleworks Loft Condominiums, is a historic structure located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. The building served as the grocery warehouse for the Witwer Grocery Company, a local Cedar Rapids grocer which included MeToo stores from 1946 to 1965 and had a bottling facility for Life Cola and Hires Root Beer on the first floor. The building is five stories tall and rises 55 feet (17 m) above the ground. It was designed by the architectural firm of Blahnik & Berger and was completed in 1946. The building was extensively renovated from 1996 to 1997 into apartments. A full height atrium was created in the buildings core. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, and is part of the Commercial & Industrial Development of Cedar Rapids MPS. The Osada complex closed in 2007 and was remodeled into Bottleworks Loft Condominiums post-2008 flood.
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Freight House, also known as the Rock Island Freight House, is a historic building located in Burlington, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern Railroad-Rock Rapids Station, Railroad Track and Bridge is a nationally recognized historic district located in Rock Rapids, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. At the time of its nomination the district included one contributing building and three contributing structures.
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Passenger Station-Vinton, also known as Rock Island Depot and the Vinton Depot, is a historic building located in Vinton, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1900, this depot replaced a previous depot of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (BCR&N) located on the east side of town. It was designed by the railroad's architect and chief engineer, H.F. White, and built by A.H. Connor & Company of Cedar Rapids. The single-story brick structure was constructed on a limestone foundation. Three years after it was built, the BCR&N was acquired by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. It continued to serve as a working depot until 1967. The Benton County Historical Society restored the depot and converted into a railroad museum. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Mills Tower Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Iowa Falls, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. At the time of its nomination the district consisted of six resources, including two contributing buildings, and four non-contributing buildings. All of the buildings are associated with the Illinois Central Railroad (IC). The Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad, an affiliate of the IC, laid the first rail track to Iowa Falls in 1866. The following year the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad, another IC affiliate, continued construction of the line to the west, and it reached Sioux City by 1870. The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (BCR&N) by way of its affiliate the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Falls & North Western, entered Iowa Falls in 1880. Two years later it was expanded to the north and intersected with the IC main line, which required a controlled crossing. Little is known about this first crossing and what it contained.
The Chicago Great Western Railroad-Waterloo Freight Depot is a historic building located in Waterloo, Iowa, United States. In 1887 the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad (CSP&KC) was the third system to enter the city, after the Illinois Central (1870) and the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway (1876). The CSP&KC was the first of the three to put its depots in the downtown area. Initially it built two depots in Waterloo, one on the west side of the Cedar River and one on the east side. By 1892 it had built separate passenger and freight depots along East Sixth Street. That was the same year that the CSP&KC became known as the Chicago Great Western Railroad. In 1903 the railroad built new passenger and freight depots a block south, moving them closer to the city's wholesale houses. The two-story concrete block freight depot was built on a rough limestone foundation. It features round arch freight doors and a simple wood cornice. The concrete block addition on the southeast side replaced a frame gabled structure, but its construction date is unknown. The old brick passenger depot was torn down in 1973, and the freight depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. In 2001 the building, which is owned by the City of Waterloo, was leased to the University of Northern Iowa for its Center for Urban Education (UNI-CUE).
The Hawthorne Glove and Novelty Company–Shrader Drug Company Building is a historic building located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1906, this utilitarian three-story brick structure is located in the city's original railroad and industrial corridor south of the central business district. This was an industrial area from the 1870s to the 1940s. It replaced a recently built building on the same site by the Hawthorne Glove and Novelty Company that had been destroyed in a fire. The back of the building opened upon the rail sidings of a branch line of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway, later the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific. By the start of World War I the Shrader Drug Company occupied the building. It was one of three drug related factories that were located along the South Gilbert Street corridor at that time. The company name changed to the Hewell-Shrader Drug Company in 1930 and then the Hewell-Shrader Company in 1945 after farm fertilizer was added to its product line. The company closed in 1956, and the building was sold to the Thompson Transfer and Storage Company who used it for a warehouse. Whipple House Furniture Store took over the building three years later, and remained until 1975. In the intervening years a variety of businesses occupied the building until the 1980s when it was vacant for a period of time. In the mid-1980s The Vine Tavern occupied the basement level and the upper floors were used for artist studios. In 2012 the upper floors were converted into apartments. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.
The Evans Manufacturing Company Building, also known as Metropolitan Supply Company Building, is a historic building located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. The Brown-Evans Manufacturing Company, which made men's work clothing, was relocated from Sedalia, Missouri to Cedar Rapids when this building was completed in 1919. It was built in the 4th Street Railroad Corridor, which had attracted various industrial enterprises in the years before and after World War I. The Modern Movement building was designed according to the principles of industrial design of the time in light of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. Its fireproof masonry construction was intended to lessen the risk of fires. Storage of raw stock was located in the basement, cutting and storage of finished stock was located on the first floor, and sewing was done on the second floor and balcony. Its open floor plan allowed for assembly line production.
The Iowa Wind Mill and Pump Company Office and Warehouse, also known as Iowa Pipe and Supply Company, Cedar Rapids Presort, and the Mott Building, is a historic building located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. This is the only extant building of a complex of buildings along the Cedar River used by the Iowa Wind Mill and Pump Company. The three-story structure is a simplified version of Victorian architecture. The thick brick walls were a form of fire protection and insulation, while the heavy timber for the interior support structure created large open space that was required to house industrial equipment, production activities, and warehouse storage. The tall windows allowed for interior lighting and ventilation. The first floor provided finished space used for offices. Iowa Wind Mill and Pump Company began as a branch of the Kendallville, Indiana based Flint & Walling Manufacturing Company around 1890. They began building their complex of buildings along the Cedar River and the tracks of the Chicago and North Western Railroad the following year. This building was completed in 1902. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The Cedar Rapids Pump Company Factory and Warehouse are two historic buildings located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. The company began in 1881. They manufactured and distributed water pumps and windmills throughout the Midwest from this facility from 1884 to 1929. They completed the first floor of the factory building along the Chicago and North Western Railroad tracks in 1884. The second floor was added to the building around 1894, and in 1901 the warehouse building was completed. The Cedar Rapids Community School District used both buildings for storage from 1974 to about 2008. The buildings were affected by the 2008 flood. The two-story brick factory building features a monitor roof, and is otherwise "purely utilitarian in appearance with no particular stylistic or decorative tendency." The warehouse is also two-stories, constructed in brick, and lacking in ornamentation. The buildings were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
The Marion Carnegie Public Library is a historic building located in Marion, Iowa, United States. The Marion Federation of Women's Clubs was established in 1901 with the purpose of organizing a public library. Adeliza Daniels was the primary force behind the organization, and she contacted Andrew Carnegie to donate funds for the building. After he agreed to a grant of $11,500, the Cedar Rapids architectural firm of Dieman and Fiske designed the brick Neoclassical building. Cedar Rapids contractor A.H. Conner was responsible for construction. It is a single-story structure built over a raised basement and a proment pedimented main entrance. The new library was dedicated on March 16, 1905, and served the community in that form until 1957. In that year the auditorium in the basement was remodeled into a children's reading room. A three-story addition, which doubled the size of the building, was completed in 1961. The building was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The Marion Public Library has subsequently moved to a new facility, and the Carnegie building is now part of the First United Methodist Church complex. In 2009 it was included as a contributing property in the Marion Commercial Historic District.
Grant Vocational High School, also known as the Board of Education and the Cedar Rapids School District Central Office, is a historic building located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Completed in 1915, this is a rare example of a vocational high school in Iowa as only a handful were ever built. While it offered various student activities in athletics and the arts, its curriculum was based on the manual arts instead of humanities or college preparatory courses. A Progressive Era idea, vocational education began in Cedar Rapids in 1904. Within a year there was a call for a dedicated vocational high school. There was much debate as the local school district's regular high school was beyond capacity and there was a need for new elementary schools. Efforts to build the school began with the passage of a bond referendum in 1911. Cedar Rapids architect William J. Brown designed the three-story, brick Prairie School structure and it was built by the F.P. Gould Company of Omaha.
Smulekoffs Furniture Store, also known as the Sinclair Building, New Sinclair Building, Warfield–Pratt–Howell Co. building and the Churchill Drug Co. building, is a historic building located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. In 1901 Thomas Sinclair had the original section of this five-story brick structure built. It housed the wholesale grocer Warfield–Pratt–Howell Co. and another wholesaler, the Churchill Drug Co. It was the second of several large-scale warehouse buildings that were constructed in this section of the city along the Cedar River. A spur line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad was located at the rear of the building. Rosenbaum Furniture Store bought the building in 1925, and it was converted from warehouse use to retail. In 1941 Smulekoffs Furniture Store took over the building and renovated the main floor. They remained here until 2014. The building is slated for apartments on the upper floors and retail on the main floor. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
Croft & Boerner was an architectural and engineering firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It was a partnership of Francis Boerner (1889–1936) and Ernest Croft (1889–1959). Several of their works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places for their architecture.
The West Side Third Avenue SW Commercial Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. At the time of its nomination it consisted of 10 resources, which included seven contributing buildings and three non-contributing buildings. Cedar Rapids was platted on the east bank of the Cedar River as Rapids City in 1841, and it was incorporated in 1849. Kingston was established on the west bank of the river in 1852, and it was annexed by Cedar Rapids in 1870. The streets were laid out parallel and perpendicular to the river, which flowed from the northwest to the southeast. The Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railway, later the Chicago & North Western Railway, was the prominent railroad on the west side of town. The first bridge across the river at Third Avenue was built in 1871. The current bridge was completed in 1912. Prior to a bridge, Rapid City and Kingston were connected by a ferry operated by David W. King, the founder of Kingston.
