Cedar Rapids dedicates Novak Plaza, Mary Kay’s Garden in Czech Village

CEDAR RAPIDS — Mary Kay Novak McGrath once imagined a mural alongside a Czech Village building facing the clock tower — and so now there is one, serving as a gateway to the neighborhood with its mix of a popular centuries-old European art style and Iowan natural elements.

She grew up in southwest Cedar Rapids and cherished memories of spending time in Czech Village with her parents, Eileen and Frank Novak. She envisioned a plaza in front of the mural named in their honor.

Known as the “Angel of the Village” for her dedication to revitalizing the historic neighborhood, McGrath died Feb. 23 at age 69 of pancreatic cancer before the plaza could be brought to life.

But community members and family gathered Thursday to dedicate the plaza after McGrath’s longtime friend, Monica Vernon, administrator of the Czech Village-New Bohemia Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District, executed McGrath’s vision for the space. It’s located at 48 16th Ave. SW.

McGrath graduated from Jefferson High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Mount Mercy University. She served on the boards of The District: Czech Village and New Bohemia, the Czech Village and New Bohemia Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

  Buy Photo

The plaza is situated at the entrance to Czech Village, where the “Mucha Meets Iowa” mural by Ali Hval overlooks a sliver of land between the art piece and the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library’s clock tower. The SSMID commission made up of property owners paying a tax toward district improvements supported the project.

“My father never would have dreamed anything like this could be possible,” said her brother, Jim Novak. “But Mary Kay made her dream come true.”

An entrance arbor welcomes people into Novak Plaza, the sidewalk winding through a garden. Educational panels inform people about McGrath and her parents, and about Alphonse Mucha, the Czech artist who inspired Hval’s mural. Internationally known for his distinctly stylized and theatrical work, he died in 1939.

The plaza also features a handcrafted table for people to gather, surrounded with commercial-grade benches designed with circles mirroring patterns in the mural, an example of how “thoughtful” McGrath was in executing her visions, Vernon said.

Instead of grass, there are old-fashioned flowers like the ones that grew in the gardens of McGrath’s mother and grandmother. There are 300 trees, shrubs, perennial flowers and bulbs overall. Her children Gavin McGrath, Jaymie McGrath-Hobson and Lindsay McGrath-Vasquez unwrapped a garden stake that read “Mary Kay’s garden,” and her grandchildren stuck it in the dirt.

  Buy Photo

“When heaven gained another angel … we decided the whole thing was going to be about Mary Kay,” Vernon said of the decision to have a garden with no grass.

McGrath’s husband, Pat McGrath, said “it’s obvious that Mary Kay’s here because it’s raining,” getting choked up as he thanked Vernon and others for carrying out the plaza project.

He said his late wife’s dedication to the village carried on her family’s legacy of building ownership in the neighborhood and kept its Czech heritage alive. She owned eight properties in the village.

Most importantly, he said the project represented her drive for family. Everything she did was at a high level — a trait he attributed to their children and grandchildren being successful.

“She sets a bar that we all reach for,” he said.

  Buy Photo

Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said the project was “a gem to our city that will draw people from all over.”

“She embodies what makes cities like ours so great because she had an eye, first of all, on what is going to endure? What is going to stay? What are we going to keep? And how are we going to keep up with growing families, changing lives, the way the world works?” O’Donnell said. “And she's done it.”

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com