116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Time Machine: Iowa River Power Restaurant
Coralville generating station produced power till 1969
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Could a 75-year-old electric generating plant on the banks of the Iowa River in Coralville be turned into a popular, upscale dining venue?
Some people doubted it in 1977. After all, the building had been used for years as storage with little to no upkeep.
The Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric plant was decommissioned in 1968 and the property sold to the city of Coralville for $1.
But Al Johnson and Dave Koenig, restaurant entrepreneurs from Davenport and Moline, Ill., as well as the new restaurant’s manager, Gary Huysman, saw the building’s potential. It took eight months and a million dollars to transform the industrial site into a prime dining experience.
“The Iowa City area has always needed a first-class restaurant,” said Huysman, who “discovered” the old power plant, “and this seemed an ideal spot.”
Huysman, Koenig and Johnson began remodeling in February 1976. The new Iowa River Power Company restaurant opened in October 1977 at First Avenue and Fifth Street.
1842 river dam
The power station’s history goes back to the construction of a dam on the Iowa River in 1842 by Iowa City Manufacturing, a company operated by Chauncey Swan, Augustus McArthur, Ferdinand Haverstrah, Thomas Snyder and Abraham Willis.
The dam was key to the success of a dizzying number of businesses for the next half-century, including grist, woolen, paper and oat mills, sawmills, machine shops and electric light works, according to a 1900 Iowa City Press-Citizen article.
After a fire destroyed the mill in 1899, it was quickly rebuilt in red brick. In 1902, it was converted into a power plant.
In 1909, Iowa City Electric Light Co. and Iowa City Gas Light Co. were merged into the Iowa City Gas and Electric Light Co. The company included the electric plant on the east bank of the Iowa River in Coralville.
That company was purchased by Iowa City Light and Power Co., owned by the United Light and Railways Co. of Grand Rapids and Chicago. The new owners took possession Sept. 1, 1912.
The Iowa City Light and Power Co. building was remodeled in 1940 at a cost of $514,000 ($9.13 million today).
Visitors to the open house received souvenir 100-watt bulbs.
“A section of the engine room, erected in 1899, was razed and a modern turbine room was erected in its place,” the Press-Citizen reported. “A 3,750 KVA turbogenerator with complete condensing equipment was installed, giving the plant a very efficient addition in generating equipment.”
A coal storage bunker – that eventually became part of the décor in the restaurant – could hold 175 tons of coal, or six days’ fuel in 1940.
Lightning struck near the Coralville plant in June 1940, damaging the plant’s largest generator. It took eight weeks to repair.
Just two years later, the Iowa City Light and Power Co. became part of the Iowa-Illinois Gas and Electric Co.
The generating plant closed Jan. 1, 1969. It was sold to the city of Coralville for $1, and the dam was taken over by the Johnson County Conservation Board.
The restaurant
The plant sat idle for seven years before its transformation began.
When the new Iowa River Power Company restaurant opened in October 1977, the 36-ton refurbished crane was left in the main dining room, and the lounge featured another 10-ton crane.
The décor included nameplates from turbines and generators as well as old photos of the power plant. The restaurant seated 200 with room for an additional 100 in the lounge. A 160-seat banquet room was under construction.
In The Gazette’s review of the new restaurant, reporter Tom Fruehling said, “They turned the old structure into one of Eastern Iowa’s newest, and perhaps its finest, eating and drinking establishments.”
Fruehling reported that Johnson started the first Boar’s Head restaurant in Moline and worked for the chain with Koenig and Huysman after it was sold to Ralston Purina Co. in 1971. The trio also owned J.K. Frisbee’s in Davenport and The Governor’s Tavern in Moline.
A restaurant in an old power building confused some residents.
“When we first opened, for several months we had people calling, irate because their utilities had been cut off, and we had people sending us their bills,” Huysman told The Gazette. “One woman called to chew me out because her electricity was out. I said, ‘I’m really sorry. Would you like to come out for lunch?’ ”
In 1989, the restaurant, then operated by Huysman and John Fisher, opened a 110-seat addition.
Closing
Danise and David Petsel bought the restaurant in 2002, though Randy Ward owned the building. A dispute over whether a five-year lease renewal had been activated resulted in the Petsels closing the restaurant Nov. 26, 2023.
The property was sold in September 2024 to an Iowa company, Old Gold & Black LLC, which said it has plans to reopen a restaurant on the site in 2026.
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