Cedar Rapids IA | Lincoln Highway News

Posts Tagged ‘Cedar Rapids IA’

Last of Cedar Rapids "auto row" to be razed

October 27, 2010

LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO

Eastern Iowa Life reports that the last intact block of “automobile row” in Cedar Rapids will be razed as early as Monday:

Lagniappe Investments plans to raze 706 and 712 Second Ave. SE, buildings that in recent years served as the Home Appliance Center and a hall for the Emerald Knights Drum & Bugle Corps…. Tom Slattery, authorized representative for Lagniappe, would not say why the site is being cleared.

Mark Stoffer Hunter, an expert in Cedar Rapids history, said architecturally, the buildings are not significant, but the block is important to Cedar Rapids history. “It’s the one block of downtown Cedar Rapids that hasn’t changed in 50 years,” he said…. As the Lincoln Highway was routed onto Second Avenue around 1920, businesses replaced homes along the route.

In the above photo, supplied to the paper by historian Mark Stoffer Hunter, Barron Motor Supply is shown at 706 Second Ave. SE in this 1935 photo. The store was one of several that lined Cedar Rapids’ “automobile row” along the Lincoln Highway.

Tags:Automobile Row, building demolition, Cedar Rapids IA, highway history, historic highway, Iowa, Lincoln Highway
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, transportation, travel | 5 Comments »

Grant Wood window back along Lincoln Highway

August 24, 2010

Van and Bev Becker alert us that the historic Grant Wood window damaged in the 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids has been restored and reinstalled along a route of the Lincoln Highway. It is in its original location in the Veterans Memorial Building and facing 2nd Avenue, which was the Lincoln Highway from 1916–1928. Restoration has taken two years and as Van says, it is a significant step in recovery from what is being called the 500-year flood. Attendees of the 2006 LHA conference in Cedar Rapids will recall the window. Wood, who lived in the city, is best known for his painting American Gothic.

Eeastern Iowa News (source of the image above) reported that “200 people gathered on the Second Avenue Bridge to welcome back the famous window at the Veterans Memorial Building. The window, dulled by the years and further damaged in the June 2008 flood, was rededicated with Fourth of July speeches that celebrated patriotism and service .”

John Watts, co-owner of the Glass Heritage company in Davenport that spent the past year restoring the 24-by-20-foot window, said… ‘It is the first and only Grant Wood stained glass window. Everyone kept that in the back of their minds while working on it.’ Watts’ workers cleaned each of the window’s 8,000-plus pieces, painstakingly restoring color where needed. Cracks were soldered or glued and then reassembled in 58 panels.

Tags:Cedar Rapids IA, Grant Wood window, highway history, historic highway, Iowa, Lincoln Highway, stained glass window
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Blog mentions Lincoln Highway in Linn County IA

August 11, 2009

The blog 42N Observations comments about life near the 42N Latitude, particularly around Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This post from a while back has four photos of Lincoln Highway segments and monuments in Linn County. Click HERE to visit, and click the photos there to see them larger.