Czech immigrant home moved “out of harm’s way”

CEDAR RAPIDS – A Czech immigrant home has made its second, and perhaps, final move in Cedar Rapids.

The house was flooded in June 2008 at its site next to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, 30 16th Ave. SW.

While the 17,000-square-foot museum was moved 480 feet to higher ground this summer, in a process that took more than one month, the house was relocated in a single day.

Expert House Movers of St. Louis used a Coonrod crane Tuesday to lift the 22-ton building, which is owned by the museum, to the site's terrace end.

Originally located at 1217 1st St. SE, the house was built in the 1880s.

Josef and Helena Sleger, who immigrated to the United States from Bohemia, bought the house from Frank and Barbara Busek around 1890.

The home stayed in the Sleger family for nearly a century, while the men worked for various Cedar Rapids businesses, including the nearby Sinclair & Co. meatpacking plant.

Frank Sleger, born in 1890, lived in the home with his wife, Anna, and four children before moving to a farm where his wife and a son died after a kerosene lamp exploded.

He returned to the home with daughter, Evelyn, putting up his young twins for adoption.

His granddaughter, Celecia Hupp, lived in the home with her family after Frank Sleger moved to a nursing home in 1981. He died in 1984.

The home was rescued from demolition by a group of volunteers who had it moved across the Cedar River in 1984.

Restoring the home took more than 5,000 hours of volunteer labor, which included stripping numerous coats of enamel paint from the wainscoting and removing two floor coverings to expose the original flooring.

Museum spokeswoman Diana Baculis said the 540-square-foot house sits 11 feet higher in its new location, “so it's safe out of harm's way.”

Artifacts were removed before the building flooded, she said, but staff will refurbish the home with different furnishings to reflect the 1880s time period

The building will open for tours when the museum reopens in July 2012.

A cinder block building that was next to the immigrant home and used for museum storage will be demolished in coming weeks. The museum's clock tower will remain in its same location.

Baculis said the Babi Buresh Center, 77 16th Ave. SW, in Czech Village, will be the next museum property renovated.

Discussions are under way regarding the future of the former Hurych Plumbing & Heating building, 39 16th Ave. SW, which the museum also owns.

The museum was moved earlier this year during a lengthy process, but the house should take just one day to relocate, museum spokeswoman Diana Baculis said.

Flooded in 2008, the house is being moved as part of a hazard mitigation contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.