116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: From hotels to parking lots
Allison and Magnus razed in 1983 in Cedar Rapids
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Cedar Rapids has been home to lots of hotels in the past 175 years. Two of them were built across from each other on Fourth Street SE in the early 1900s and met a similar fate decades later.
The first to be built, the Allison, followed on the heels of another hotel project, referred to as the “Third Avenue Hotel,” later named the Montrose.
The Allison was built on the site of the old Clifton Hotel at the corner of First Avenue and Fourth Street SE. The Clifton burned down in 1903. A year later, enough money had been raised to begin building the Allison.
“The Allison will be fireproof throughout,” The Gazette reported in November 1905. “The concreting in every particular has been admirably done. There is not a single part of the building that could catch fire, aside from the wooden window sills.”
The work on the Allison was finished – almost – in 1906. The owners were unsure whether a hotel that size would be filled and decided not to finish the fifth floor.
It was soon determined the space would be needed after all, and Loomis Brothers was hired to complete the work in 1907. When it was done, the Allison had 150 rooms. In 1935, during the Great Depression, the fifth floor was converted into apartments.
The Magnus Hotel
In 1912, construction began on another fireproof hotel across the alley from the Allison at Second Avenue and Fourth Street SE. The Magnus started with 127 rooms on five floors and offered its clients a Turkish bath in the basement. The hotel sank a 230-foot private well to supply its patrons with water.
The hotels’ claims to be fireproof were tested in June 1947 when an inebriated off-duty Cedar Rapids fireman, Richard LeMont, set at least six fires between the two hotels. No significant damage was done. Although he admitted to reporters that he had set the fires, LeMont pleaded not guilty at his trial. A jury found him guilty Oct. 16, and he was sentenced to 10 years at the penitentiary in Fort Madison.
After some serious vandalism at the Magnus in 1978, the hotel closed. The Cedar Rapids Jaycees sponsored a “Haunted Hotel” there in 1979.
Parking lots
In 1983, the Civic Development Association, a group of private investors initially formed in 1946 to procure land for public parking, announced plans to buy the hotels and raze them, creating space for parking lots.
The Magnus had been vacant for several years, and the Allison was home to older and low-income residents.
Acknowledging the problems faced by residents displaced from the Allison, Herman Ginsberg, speaking for the Civic Development Association, said the group was looking into possibly renovating the Montrose into a residence for those tenants.
In April 1983, firefighters were called to the Magnus when a salvage crew member’s cutting torch ignited gas inside a metal pipe. The gas was supposed to have been shut off. Another alarm sent firefighters to the Allison a few days later. The source of a cloud of steam was a broken steam line.
An auction of items from the Allison was held May 28 before its demolition.
Demolition
Gee Grading & Excavating of Cedar Rapids was hired to demolish both hotels. The Allison came first on June 1, 1983. By June 22, the Allison sign was all that remained.
Demolition of the Magnus began immediately after that. The work, however, was not without consequences.
Gary Dvorak, operator of the Magnus’ next-door neighbor, Café de Klos at 322 Second Ave. SE, claimed the unsafe environment created by the demolition forced him to close his business.
A crack is shown Oct. 19, 1983, at a building next door to the Cafe de Klos on Second Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids, on its second floor in a shared support column. The building's owner claimed the crack was caused by the cafe building leaning away from his structure following the demolition of the Magnus Hotel. (Gazette archives)
A cement block wall was constructed Oct. 19, 1983, over part of the outside wall of the Cafe de Klos building at 322 Second Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids. It was part of the effort to protect the wall, which was reportedly weakened when the old Magnus Hotel next door was demolished. (Gazette archives)
An auction takes place May 28, 1983, at the Allison Hotel about a month before its demolition in Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives)
A crane works amid the rubble during the demolition June 21, 1983, of the Allison Hotel in this scene looking south from First Avenue East at the Fourth Street tracks in Cedar Rapids. (Gazette archives)
As demolition of the Magnus progressed, cracks became noticeable in walls of the café as well as the building next to it that now houses Bricks Bar & Grill.
In April 1984, it was decided to demolish the café building, with owner Moe Richardson saying the cost to strengthen the wall was prohibitive.
The temporary parking area, created where the hotels and café had once stood, was expected to help alleviate parking issues downtown.
The Civic Development Association was disbanded in 1997. Its duties were taken over by the Renaissance Group.
Comments: D.fannonlangton@gmail.com
Daily Newsletters