Muslims of Cedar Rapids&nbsp;were involved&nbsp;in religious and social&nbsp;organizations in the 1920s and 1930s. The first one was the League of Bountiful Flowers and a second one was The Rose of Fraternity Lodge. Out of these organizations came the the effort to construct a mosque, which was completed in 1938. It served the community for forty years until it was sold after a new, bigger mosque was constructed in 1971.&nbsp;The building deteriorated after that but the Islamic Council of Iowa bought it and restored it to its original state in 1991. It now serves as a&nbsp;Muslim cultural center. In 2008, the floods damaged virtually all of the mosques historical records in the basement.

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The Mother Mosque of America is the oldest structure specifically built to be a mosque in America (a mosque was built in 1929 in North Dakota was the first one but that one burned down, leaving the Mother Mosque as the oldest surviving mosque). The architecture is a simple one-story building with a basement. Nonetheless, given its important religious and cultural history, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Mother Mosque of America 

Instructor

Starting at the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library and the African American Museum of Iowa, this tour moves north and east to the Brucemore Estate before making its way to downtown Cedar Rapids. Highlights of the downtown area include stops at several historic buildings, the community's art museum, the History Center, and the landmark Veterans Memorial Building.  The tour then moves north to the Mother Mosque of America and concludes at Ushers Ferry Historic Village. 

Iowa has long had a rich African American history stretching back centuries ago to 1804 when a slave entered the state with the Lewis and Clark expedition as they were exploring the Louisiana Territory. African Americans have long been involved in all aspects of Iowa including wars, economics, and public education. Dred Scott, a famous slave that was denied citizenship into the United States based on the decision decided in the Supreme Court during Dred Scott v. Stanford, lived in the city of Davenport. Scott is also known for his various attempts at buying his family’s freedom or trying to remove their status as slaves in district courts. Iowa historians have come together to create a museum that preserves the heritage and history of African-Americans in their state.The African American Museum of Iowa was founded in 1994 by the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. They pursued the goal of preserving African American heritage in the state in celebration of Black History Month. Four years later in 1998, the museum hired it’s first employee, Joseph McGill, who would serve as Executive Director. In May 2003, Thomas Moore would serve as interim Executive Director, but was dropped the same year in November. Another version of the museum was opened in September 2003 and highlighted one of it’s notable exhibits named Doorways: A History of African Americans in Iowa.The main museum has two large scale exhibits that depict the history and heritage of the African American history in the state of Iowa. Covering anything from the state’s first slave that was owned by William Clark and took part in the famous Lewis and Clark expedition to other different types of artifacts. With 70 feet of archives and 200 oral histories stacked together inside the museum, the educational opportunities are endless for researchers. It also includes the Gale Sayers changing exhibit gallery, which displays a new exhibit every year.The African American Museum of Iowa has been in business for over 20 years preserving African-American history. It includes an enormous wealth of African American history in the state of Iowa and is the leading museum in this field in the state. There's been a lot of hard work put in from a lot of different volunteers to make the museum possible. In 2011, the museum served over 52,000 visitors with guided tours of each exhibit. There is also a summer camp and various educational programs for children to attend in order to learn more.

Established in 1994, the African American Museum of Iowa gives a look inside the enriched history of African Americans in the state of Iowa. African Americans have been settling in the state before it actually became apart of the United States. Their history in Iowa revolves around mainly their time as slaves to helping the state grow as farmers and protecting it by enlisting in the military. The African American Museum of Iowa is a museum that's dedicated to being the number one source of African American history, heritage, culture, and their contribution to the history of Iowa. It displays chapters in 8 communities across the entire state of Iowa. In 2008, the museum was devastated by a flood and the first floor was completely flooded with over 5 feet of water and caused over $1 million worth of damage.

African American Museum of Iowa

"The grandest house west of Chicago"
In the middle of Brucemore Estate, which holds over 120 years of history, stands a 19th-century mansion that tells the stories of three families from Cedar Rapids- the Sinclair, Douglas, and Hall families. They were among thousands of other wealthy families who moved from the cities to the countryside. Each family had its own influence on the industrial development of Cedar Rapids in some way. The estate shows the importance and the evolution of the Midwest in this century. This was the largest real estate transaction in the city's history.
The mansion is 4 stories containing 21 rooms, all filled with the art, furnishings, technology, and architecture of its time. In the 1880s, when the Sinclairs first bought the home, it was priced at $55,000, so it made quite an impression on the city when it was built. Ossian Cole, an influential landscaping architect, was responsible for the outdoor rooms and vistas, and he was well-known for his work at the Graceland Cemetery as well.
Brucemore emphasizes that preservation, conservation, and restoration describes the treatment of the Historical Estate. The mansion's tours run from March through December each year.

Brucemore Historical Estate

The congregation's roots date back to 1840 when circuit riders began preaching to Methodists in a log house known as the Listebarger cabin. The cabin served as the meetinghouse (i.e. a church) for the congregation, which was officially established in 1843. The congregation built the first church building, a one-story brick structure known as the "Little Brick Church", in 1856. The number of members in the congregation rose to 268 during the Civil War and the church received its first full-time minister. In 1878, construction of the second church building was completed. It was a much larger brick building that featured a large corner tower and lancet windows. The congregation purchased the land on which the present church now stands in 1909 and hired Louis Sullivan the next year to design it. The cost for his plan, which included a significant amount of exterior ornamentation, was twice than the original estimate and the congregation requested he make changes. Sullivan declined and withdrew from the project. The congregation then hired Jones whose changes—including removing much of the ornamentation—cut the budget to $100,000. These modifications, however, did not significantly alter Sullivan's overall design. The church was remodeled in 1946 and 1963, and the addition was erected in 1963. The most recent renovations were completed in 2017.

St. Paul's United Methodist Church is one of five buildings in Iowa designed by noted American architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), who is known as the "father of skyscrapers" and for coining the phrase "form follows function" (another architect, W.C. Jones, simplified the design after Sullivan left the project). Built in 1914, the church consists of a half circle auditorium that is attached to rectangular building, a large addition, and a six-story bell tower. The auditorium roof features a skylight with multi-colored glass. The congregation itself was founded in 1843 as St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

St. Paul's United Methodist Church

Douglas followed in the footsteps of his father, George Douglas Sr., who became wealthy by building stone bridges for railroads and owning a large amount of farmland. Douglas Sr., who was born in Scotland, met another Scottish businessman, Robert Stuart in 1873 and soon established an oatmeal factory called Douglass &amp; Stewart. Douglas Jr. was involved in running the mill until 1891 when it merged with the Quaker Oats Company. He became a stockholder of the company but also became involved in other ventures. He and group of investors founded a linseed oil company in 1894 (they eventually sold it to a bigger company) and in 1903, Douglas and his brother, Walter, founded a corn starch factory, which was believed to be the largest factory west of the Mississippi River by 1910. In 1919, a large explosion severely damaged the factory but it was rebuilt and became the Penick &amp; Ford Factory, which evolved into the Penford Corporation (Penford is now a subsidiary of another corporation called Ingredion). The Douglas family lived in the house until 1906. During that time they hosted several social gatherings with other prominent local families and Douglas often held business meetings as well. In need of a larger house, the family moved to the historic Brucemore Mansion in 1906 (they swapped houses with the owner the mansion, Caroline Sinclair, who was looking for a smaller home). Caroline and her son Robert and his family moved into the house in 1906. Caroline's husband, Thomas, had died by then. Sadly, Robert's wife died in 1908 after giving birth and he asked two of his youngest sisters to live in the house and help raise his children. Robert made a living by running the slaughterhouse business his father started in 1871. Caroline and one of the sisters both died in 1917. Robert remarried in 1923 and moved to Indianapolis to start a new job at a packing company. David Turner and his father, John, bought the house and converted it into a funeral home called Turner Mortuary. They hired Wood and an architect to manage the conversion and many substantial changes were made to the house, including enlarging the dining room into a funeral chapel. The Turners offered Wood the option to convert the carriage house as a home a studio as partial payment for the work he did. Wood, his sister, and his mother, Nan, lived in the carriage house. The Turners admired Wood's work and became his patron. They bought many of his paintings and displayed them in the house (the Turner family donated 84 of Wood's paintings to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in 1972). The family sold the business in 1978 to the Linge family, who ran a mortuary business and cemetery. The Linge family ended funeral services in 2004 but rented the house as event space. Wood's home and studio was acquired by the Cedar Rapids Art Museum at that time as well. The Linges put the house up for sale in 2012 and the History Center bought it in 2014. Over the next few years the house was refurbished and then opened to the public in 2018.

Housed in the George B. Douglas Mansion, the History Center is dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of Linn County. It features permanent and changing exhibits as well as an archives and a research library that contain more than 20,000 items. These include Civil War era letters, pioneer diaries, newspaper clippings, and school annuals. The Center's main collection contains over 50,000 items. The mansion was built by its first owner, George B. Douglas, in 1897 and is an excellent example of Colonial Revival architecture. Douglas was a prominent businessman who was part of owner of a cereal mill that merged with the Quaker Oats Company. The mansion is also significant for its association with another owner, David Turner, and the American painter Grant Wood. In 1930, Wood painted his most famous work, American Gothic, in the carriage house which he rented from Turner between 1924 and 1933.

The History Center

The museum and the community's collection dates back&nbsp;to the efforts&nbsp;of community leaders to plan an art museum following the Chicago World's Fair at the turn of the century. The fair inspired&nbsp;community leaders to form an art club. Ten years later, the club was offered a gallery in the Carnegie Library and the club incorporated as the Cedar Rapids Art Association. The association acquired their&nbsp;first painting in 1906. During the 1920s-1930s is the period&nbsp;when Grant Wood and the other famous artists were members of the association. Wood painted American Gothic during this time. In the 1960s the association&nbsp;moved into another building and changed its name to the Cedar Rapids Art Center.&nbsp;In 1989, the Carnegie Library became available and the and&nbsp;an addition was built next to it, the new building and the Library&nbsp;became the Cedar Rapids Art Museum.&nbsp;

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art is located in downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It has over 63,000 square feet of exhibit space and contains collections of famous artists such as Grant Wood (the painter of "American Gothic"), Marvin Cone, and Bertha Jaques. It also contains a collection of ancient Roman busts. It obtained accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums in 1981. Tours of Grant Wood's studio nearby is open to tours several days a week.

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

Czech immigrants began arriving in the United States in the early 1800s but their numbers rose after 1848. They continued to come in significant numbers until 1930. While Czech immigration to Iowa peaked in 1890, Linn County saw in increase in Czech nationals arriving every year until 1920. As a result, by the mid-20th century, around 25% of the population in Cedar Rapids was of Czech ancestry. The first Czechs to settle in Cedar Rapids did so around 1852.The first Sokol organization in the United States was founded in St. Louis in 1865. In Cedar Rapids, the first one was established in 1873 and it was called the Jednota Tyrs (the Tyrs Organization). They met in the hall of another Czech organization called the Reading Society. The Cedar Rapids Sokols was founded in 1876 and merged with the Jednota Tyrs in 1888. A woman's Sokol group was established in 1892, and youth group (for 12-16 year olds) was founded in 1936.The Cedar Rapids Sokols met in the Reading Society's hall until about 1892 when they moved into a house they converted into a gym. This eventually became too small and the Sokols purchased the adjacent lot to build a new facility, which was completed in 1901. The group decided to build Sokol Gymnasium after the Rock Island Railroad announced plans to build a freight depot in the neighborhood. The new building was much larger and could accommodate spectators in the gallery above the gym floor. Members participated in a number of physical activities including basketball, handball, weight training, and trampoline lessons. There were also programs geared towards promoting Czech heritage. Lectures, masquerade balls, monthly dinners, weddings and other gatherings were held at the gym as well.

The historic Sokol Gymnasium building was erected in 1908 by a Czech gymnastics and social organization called the Cedar Rapids Sokols, which continues to operate today. The word Sokol means "firebird" in the Czech language. The Sokol movement was founded in 1862 in Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, by Miroslave Tyrs and Jindrich Fugner. Its purpose was to improve the moral and physical health of Czech men (and eventually women) through physical, educational, and moral training. The Sokols used the building until the flood of 2008 forced them to move to their current location. A sports bar and night club occupy the building today. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

Sokol Gymnasium

The property on which the building now stands was once occupied by the First New Order Presbyterian Church. Built in 1850, it was the first church in Cedar Rapids. A fire severely damaged it in 1871 and the congregation moved to its present location. The federal government bought property in 1895 and built the courthouse and post office in 1897. Other federal agencies occupied the building as well.By the early 1900s, it became clear that a larger a building was needed. The population in Cedar Rapids had risen significantly and the federal functions could not accommodate the needs of the growing city. As a result, the building was enlarged and converted from the Romanesque style to the Renaissance Revival style. The federal government used it until the present courthouse was built in 1933. It appears the old courthouse remained vacant until 1936 when the owner of the Witwer Grocery Company, Weaver Witwer, bought it. The store was on the first floor and the company's and rented offices were on the other floors.In 1967, Witwer leased the building to the county, which eventually a bought it in 1979. For many years various county departments were located in the building. It also housed a senior center. The county sold it to a developer in 2010.

The former Cedar Rapids Post Office and Public Building, which is also known as the Witwer Building, was originally built in 1897 and served the city's primary federal courthouse and post office until 1932. It represented the authority of the federal government, which had increased in the early 1900s under President Theodore Roosevelt. In terms of design, the building is also significant as an excellent example of Renaissance Revival architecture. Interesting features include a stone and brick exterior, arched windows with stone trim, stone trimmed geometric panels with geometric motifs, and a decorative metal cornice. The building now houses a restaurant and office space. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Cedar Rapids Post Office and Public Building

Edith McCormick Rockefeller, the daughter of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller, financed the construction of Hotel Roosevelt. The Chicago-based architecture firm Krenn &amp; Dato designed it (they designed many other buildings in the Midwest). The Hotel Roosevelt was one of numerous modern hotels built in small and medium-sized cities around the country between 1900 and 1930. During this period, these hotels symbolized economic stability and growth and communities expected they would help generate further prosperity. These hotels offered a number of specialized services, which are now standard, including private bathrooms, full-length mirrors, fire doors, ice water, and free newspapers. They also became community gathering places as many had ballrooms where various events could take place.It appears Hotel Roosevelt closed for a time before being reopening in the 1970s with rental apartments and hotel guest rooms. Another round of renovations occurred in the 1990s. In 2008, the hotel was being renovated again when the city was flooded. This increased the renovation cost by about $10 million. It reopened in 2010 as the The Roosevelt Lofts but is now known as the The Roosevelt Apartments.

Now an apartment building, the former Hotel Roosevelt remains a significant landmark in downtown Cedar Rapids. It was built in 1927 and for many years was the city's most prestigious hotel. A fine example of Georgian Revival architecture, it was built of brick and features decorative elements including medallions and terra cotta panels. It also still retains its original terrazzo flooring in the lobby. The Hotel Roosevelt was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Hotel Roosevelt

Veterans Memorial Building is located on May's Island on the bridge over the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.&nbsp;The building is designed in Beaux-Art style and built in 1925 after the Veterans Memorial Commission approved the site. Having the building that includes City Hall built on an island meant that it joined only two other city governments that were on an island: Paris, France and Osaka, Japan. The main part of the building has four stories, while the front has eight stories. The front of the building also contains a cenotaph to honor the deceased war soldiers above the eight stories, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier above the cenotaph, and the eternal flame placed atop in 2000 to symbolize our perpetual gratitude and remembrance of war veterans alive and deceased. Reviews point out that the most sought out item to visit in the building is Grant Wood's stained glass memorial piece made in 1927. It measures 24ft by 20ft and depicts the Lady of Peace and Victory in the clouds who holds a palm branch for peace in one hand while the other hand contains a wreath meaning victory. Surrounding her under the clouds are six soldiers that represent soldiers of the American Revolution, War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, American Civil War, Spanish-American War, and WWI. After severe damage in the flood of 2008, the building underwent several years of renovations. Veterans Memorial Building was officially reopened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 15, 2014. The Memorial Window is a highlight of the building, with beautiful colors of the piece dance in the sunlight and light up the room. The window was damaged during the flood of 2008, but restored in 2010 by the Glass Heritage of Davenport, Iowa.&nbsp;Other highlights of the building include a WWII memorial of The Raising of the Flag at Iwo Jima at the top of the steps. There is also a small museum and galleries that house over 2,500 artifacts on the first floor.&nbsp; The Memorial Coliseum includes seven banners of veterans organizations and seven American flags hanging from the ceiling. Besides artifacts and memorials, the building is home to the Community of Artists and Veterans (C.A.V.), Operation Home, Heroes and Friends Social Club, and Midwest Military Outreach. These organizations help veterans by allowing them to explore the arts as a profession, therapy, meeting fellow veterans, and an outreach program for resources as well. Along with history and outreach programs, the building also houses events in its ballroom, upper auditorium, and lower auditorium.

This historic Cedar Rapids public building was conceived in the wake of World War I as a home for the city's governmental offices and other civic purposes. A 1925 petition gained support and following a successful referendum,  Veterans Memorial Commission was formed to start construction of the building. The building on May's Island serves a variety of functions and also served as Cedar Rapids' City Hall for the first eight decades of its existence Additions to the building in future years included new memorials to honor veterans of WWII, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the American Revolution, and the Spanish-American War. The building has eight stories and serves as the home of many community organizations and also a space for community events. 

Veterans Memorial Building

The first member of the Usher family to arrive in Linn County was Dyer Usher, who started a ferry service across the Cedar River around 1836. The ferry landing was located a quarter mile to the north on the river. The ferry service continued until the 1860s. While the Usher Village site was never a town, it was a Native American camp site. Another notable fact about the site is that Henry Usher the first to own the property. His house was originally located near where the landing was. The village was first called Pioneer Village but was later given its current name in 1986.

Ushers Ferry Historic Village is a recreated town site featuring a collection of historic buildings dating to the late 1890s and early 1900s. It opened in 1975 and is named after the Usher Family, who were one of the first settlers in the county. The buildings, which were relocated here, include a one-room school, saloon, church, and the house of Dyer's cousin, Henry A. Usher. There is also a visitor center and large building for events. The site offers a variety of events and educational programs including a day in the one-room school for children.

Cedar Rapids Iowa Driving Tour

Mother Mosque of America

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information