Coe College demolishing, preserving older properties

An entire block of homes on the city's “most endangered” list will soon be lost to history as Coe College's expansion plans progress.

At the same time the C Avenue NE homes are razed, Coe is renovating two early 20th-century apartment buildings for student housing, which college officials point to as a sign of their commitment to preservation.

“We've had a pretty good track record when it comes to historical buildings,” Coe spokesman Rod Pritchard said.

Pritchard cited more than $20 million in renovations of older campus buildings since 2000, with work this summer on the 1914-era Hampton Court Apartments, 1261 and 1263 First Ave. SE, pegged at $1 million.

Neighborhood advocates applaud those efforts, but take issue with continuing demolitions in the Mound View Neighborhood.

Emily Meyer, past president of the Mound View Neighborhood Association, noted that an award was granted this year to survey several blocks in the neighborhood for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

The district would center on B Avenue NE, between 15th and 18th streets, and include some adjacent properties.

“We lost so much in the flood,” Meyer said of the 2008 flooding that damaged more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the core of Cedar Rapids. “We don't want to lose more of our historic neighborhoods.”

The early 1900s-homes Coe is razing, at 1421, 1427, 1431, 1433 and 1435 C Avenue NE, along with 1438 A Ave. NE, were untouched by floodwaters.

Earlier this year, the homes and others in the 1400 block between A and C avenues NE, including the childhood home of artist Grant Wood, were named to the city's Most Endangered Properties.

The list was created to draw attention to buildings at risk of being razed or otherwise lost, in hopes of saving them.

Faced with Coe's plans at a meeting this month, the city's Historic Preservation Commission voted to allow the college to proceed with demolition. Members noted that the homeowners were willing sellers. The commission can only place a 60-day hold on demolition permits to try to find alternatives, such as moving the buildings or salvaging.

Pritchard said past inquiries into moving homes in the neighborhood proved too expensive, so no efforts were made to relocate the six.

Joe Hennager, director of Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore, said there was insufficient time to salvage floors, but light fixtures, appliances and a few other items were saved.

Green space

Coe has purchased 50 of the 64 properties in its expansion area - the 1400 block between A and C avenues. Those homes will likely go off the city's tax rolls unless the college rents them out.

Pritchard said, for now, all are intended as green space for the college, which is seeing record enrollment numbers. This year, Coe had 1,312 full-time students.

In the 1990s, Coe removed at least 25 properties between College Drive and 14th Street to develop its east campus.

Nicole Sales, president of the Mound View Neighborhood Association, said residents were too preoccupied with this year's closing of Polk Elementary School to devote time to Coe's plans.

Sales called Polk's closure a “devastating blow,” but is less committed to a position on the demolitions.

“I think it's kind of a wash,” she said. “We need the housing because we need the people in our area, but we don't need homes falling down.”

Possible boundary

Meyer, who led efforts for the B Avenue survey, said the homes were not dilapidated.

“The homes that they're taking out are not blight,” she said. “They're taking out affordable housing.”

Meyer said she chose Mound View when she moved from Iowa City because she wanted to live in a vibrant, historic neighborhood.

With Coe setting its sights on the neighborhood, landlords and homeowners are less apt to maintain their buildings, assuming that the college will eventually buy the properties, she said.

That sets up a cycle in which the neighborhood declines and Coe uses it as an excuse to demolish more homes, Meyer said.

She called on Coe officials to commit to drawing a definitive boundary at 15th Street.

Pritchard said Coe has no intention to cross 15th Street for the foreseeable future.

He also noted that the college would use the B Avenue Fire Station as student housing if it is acquired and would preserve the Grant Wood home, but has not approached the owner of the house.

The college was unaware of plans for the National Register survey until Pritchard attended this month's Historic Preservation Commission meeting, he said.

Alexa McDowell, architectural historian with AKAY Consulting of Boone, said the Fire Station and Grant Wood home may be included in the survey she was hired to update. A previous survey showed both C and B avenues as potential historic districts.

A National Register listing would not preclude owners from making changes to their homes, but could make tax credits and other incentives available for major restoration projects, she said.

Wood history

Homeowner Keith Post said he was unaware of the history of the Grant Wood home, 318 14th St. NE, when he bought it more than two decades ago.

Wood's mother, Hattie Wood, purchased the home in 1902 for $2,580 after her husband died and the family moved to Cedar Rapids from Anamosa. Wood won third place in a national art contest while attending Polk School and still lived in the home, and elsewhere in the neighborhood, after graduating from Washington High School.

Post said he might someday put the home up for auction on eBay, given the international interest in Grant Wood.

Preservationists say without the context of the neighborhood, the home's historic significance is diminished, but Post, 69, is somewhat ambivalent about Coe's expansion plans.

“I'm kind of torn,” he said, noting that he doesn't mind being surrounded by the campus, but, “the neighborhood is so interesting. They've destroyed a lot of history.”

Survey meeting

•  Volunteers interested in helping with the B Avenue District historic survey can attend a meeting from 5:30 to 8 p.m. July 18 at Imago Christi Church, 1700 B Ave, NE. Help is needed in photography, data entry, research and other areas. Training will be conducted. For more information, contact Alexa McDowell at: akaymcd@hotmail.com or (515) 491-5432.