Lyman Building Catastrophe

Construction of the Lyman Building in Cedar Rapids is shown from the corner of Third Street and Fourth Avenue SE (left panel, above). The unfinished building, adjacent to the Sokolovna Gymnasium building, is shown in ruins (right panel) shortly thereafter on Friday, November 14, 1913, after the upper section of the structure collapsed. Workmen were atop the building setting forms and pouring concrete for the last portion of the roof around 3:15 p.m., when a snapping of timber was followed by the collapse of the roof onto the seventh floor. The roar could be heard for blocks as one floor rapidly fell onto another, until wreckage piled high in the basement of the building. It was all over in 30 seconds or less. Seven men were killed and three injured. 20 other workers from the building somehow escaped unharmed. One of the injured, Charles Brown, literally rode a portion of the top floor down to the third floor level, then pushed himself out onto the sidewalk below. He suffered broken ankles and other injuries, but survived. It was later determined that collapse of the building was due to "faulty and insufficient falsework in supporting concrete" of two sections of the frame. 

F.A. Lymon established his wholesale and retail millinery (women's hats) business in Cedar Rapids in 1889. The company occupied three separate locations before the construction of the seven story Lyman Building at 421 Fourth Avenue SE. The building was an oddity in Cedar Rapids as it used poured concrete and not bricks as its supporting structure. It was finally finished in 1914, a year after the accident, and its name was then changed to the Iowa Building. Century Engineering Corporation, an oil and gas heating company, occupied the building for many years. Both the Iowa Building and the Sokolovna Gymnasium building (1908) still stand today.