Piece of History: Christmas on the Cedar Rapids skywalks

In 1985, Merchants National Bank added a skywalk to connect the bank to the downtown skywalk system and beautify the First Avenue and Third Street SE corner.

The plan included ways to improve the downtown’s holiday decorations.

The 180-foot skywalk extension was added midblock, built over the alley between First and Second avenues.

The skywalk entered the third floor of the 12-story Merchants National building and was designed so that the bank could close to the public without blocking access to the skywalk. That allowed holiday shoppers to still visit stores while protected from winter’s snow and cold.

Two new features were built into the skywalk extension that weren’t in the existing skywalk.

A space was left between the bank building and the skywalk to allow a “chimney” for exhaust from cars and trucks below and also to allow more light into the bank’s offices.

Also, a customized, curved ladder was installed and mounted on a track so the skywalk windows could be cleaned and holiday decorations could be easily installed.

Tara Templeman is curator at The History Center. Comments: curator@historycenter.org

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