Czech Village historic nomination moves to federal level without neighboring homes

Czech Village will become part of a historic district in Cedar Rapids, but not the residential neighborhood next to the business strip.

The State Nominations Review Committee voted unanimously Friday, Oct. 8, to forward the nomination to the National Park Service for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

While the listing is not a given, the Park Service rarely rejects nominations submitted by a state.

That listing is significant because building owners can qualify for historic tax credits and other financial incentives to restore flood-damaged structures.

Jeremy Ammerman, architectural historian for disaster recovery efforts for the State Historical Society of Iowa, presented the nomination to the committee during a meeting in Des Moines.

Ammerman noted that 15 buildings that were contributing structures to the Bohemian Commercial Historic District have been demolished since the Floods of 2008.

Most of those were homes on Second and Third streets SE.

“This is not static,” Ammerman said, citing more buildings that could disappear from the district.

But committee members were told to vote based on what existed when the district was surveyed.

The Bohemian district, primarily Third Street SE between 10th and 14th avenues, has been listed since 2002; Czech Village businesses on 16

^th

Avenue SW will be added to that listing.

Several groups, including the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District and Cedar Rapids Historic Preservation Commission, submitted letters supporting inclusion of the homes next to Czech Village in the nomination.

The homes were built beginning in the late 1800s and were the impetus for the bakeries, meat markets and other shops in the Czech Village business district.

Ammerman did not mention those letters, but committee members questioned why the residential neighborhood was not included.

Member Laura Hoover of Swisher said she wished there had been more time and money to properly evaluate the Bohemian influence in Cedar Rapids.

Rod Scott, president of Preservation Iowa, also noted that two buildings on C Street SW were unintentionally left off the nomination.

Adding any buildings, however, would set the nomination back by at least three months.

The eight members agreed to submit the nomination, with comments to address the architectural significance of the homes.

Scott said Czech immigrants used a unique timber framing technique to build the homes, using hefty timbers for the foundations.

About 60 of the 150 or so homes in the Czech Village residential neighborhood are slated for demolition.