'Historic' First Street Parkade coming down

CEDAR RAPIDS – The city has secured permission to tear down the rickety, flood-damaged yet historic First Street Parkade – with the “unique spiral exit ramp” – if it creates a new historic district on Second Avenue SE as a tribute to the automobile.

The new district is to be called the Second Avenue SE Automobile Row Historic District to recognize the past life of parts of the stretch of street as a home to auto dealerships and auto repair shops, according to a “memorandum of agreement” approved by the City Council last night.

Parties to the agreement include the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the State Historic Preservation Office and the Iowa Homeland Security & Emergency Management Division.

The 50-year-old First Street Parkade has been a City Hall target for demolition for some years, and the city thought it would take it down in December.

However, historic preservation specialists at both the federal and state level concluded that the Parkade is a historically significant structure eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places at the state and local level.

In part, the Parkade qualifies for such standing because of its “unique spiral exit ramp” that “provides a stunning visual impact on the east bank of the Cedar River,” Jeff Carr, a lead FEMA historic preservation specialist in Iowa, informed the city in a letter last year.

In taking down a piece of history, the agreement approved by the council last night calls for the city to mitigate the loss with an investment in another piece of local history.

The Automobile Row Historic District is intended to note that the famed Lincoln Highway was routed onto Second Avenue SE around 1920 where it became home to car dealerships, garages and service stations, Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter has said.

A study will determine the boundaries of the new Historic District, according to the agreement approved Tuesday night.