Time Machine: Sheftic’s Boat House

CEDAR RAPIDS - Edward Sheftic, who was born Jan. 31, 1877 in the first house north of the NorthWestern railroad bridge, lived most of his life within a stone's throw of the Cedar River.

He attended old Harrison School at Fifth Street and K Avenue West through fifth grade, then quit school to help out at home.

One of his first jobs was at Wolf's Brick Yard on the Vinton Road. He heard there was an opening at the BCR & N rail yards (later the Rock Island yards), so he went to work there in the blacksmith shop.

In 1906, Sheftic decided to build a pleasure boating business on the Cedar River. When he was told that building a business took capital and that his scheme probably wouldn't inspire the bank to give him a loan, he forged ahead anyway.

Starting with one flat boat, Sheftic rented it to fishermen often enough the first season that he realized enough profit to pay for construction of a second boat.

He continued on at the rail yards as he worked to get his boating business afloat.

Each season, he added flat-bottomed boats until he needed somewhere to house them. He built a shelter, floating on barrels, at 1124 First Street NW, where the Hubbard Ice & Fuel Co. office building stands.

When he felt the business had grown enough to support his family, Sheftic quit his rail yard job.

Pleasure boating was becoming more popular as a recreation activity, but Sheftic felt his flat bottom boats were too crude for that use. He bought one round-bottomed boat and added one or two each season until his little boat house couldn't accommodate all of them.

While he was building an addition to the boat house, a man who was applying for a job said, 'Boss, I reckon I might be of value to you in building some boats like the round ones in the rack.”

Sheftic had no experience in building the round-bottomed-style boats, so he hired the man. It was a good decision. Soon canoes were added to the stock of water craft and were popular with college students.

Sheftic's next decision - to add launches - was a risky one. It took all of his surplus capital with no guarantee that the public was interested in that style of boating, but it, too, was a success.

In a 1954 Gazette interview, Sheftic recalled the first of the launches. He built the steam-powered launch with Ralph Hromek. They had problems with it occasionally. A whistle valve got stuck one time, letting all the steam escape. The boat had to drift until the boiler could build up another head of steam.

By 1918, the old boat house was gone and a new, two-story boat house was erected at a cost of $15,000. Sheftic also built a boat house and a home farther up the river near Ellis Park at 1889 Ellis Blvd. His business was valued at $30,000.

'July Fourth used to be our heaviest day in any year,” Sheftic said. 'Folks would come along in the early morning and want to go up the river for picnics. We'd take ‘em up and then bring them back later in the day.”

Sheftic's power boats also would tow rentals and canoes upriver and let the renters drift with the current back to the boat house.

When asked about his success, he said, 'What I have done, others can do. Life means more to me now than if I had had easy sledding. If I had, I might have failed to see the real joy of life. Ambition, grit, and determination made me independent. If you are a firm believer in doing more than you are doing, or more than your job calls for, you cannot help but shake the hand of success.”

By the late 1920s, Sheftic had closed the West Side Boat House, moving all of his boats to the boat house and filling station at 1895 Ellis Blvd. NW.

In August 1927, Sheftic and his wife Minnie took a vacation for the first time since Sheftic started the business. They toured the Northwest by car, camping along the way.

Sheftic remembered the big flood of 1929. ' ... you could put in a boat across the street and row to People's Bank (now Popoli's Restaurant). But the water never touched my house.”

Sheftic's business took a hit during World War II, but in spring 1946, when the war was over and more gas was available for cars and boats, boat owners and boat enthusiasts were making their way to the river. Ed and Minnie moved from their home on Ellis Boulevard to 20 acres that Sheftic had purchased on O Avenue NW, leaving more room for the boat business. The ice on the river went out early that year and damaged Sheftic's docks and the concrete apron in front of the boat house, so he faced repairs before the boating season was in full swing. He had 60 boats in 1946, including canoes.

Sheftic was a civic-minded businessman. He served on the City Plan Commission for many years and was a member of the City Safety Council. When, in 1915, The Evening Gazette began promoting public support of Sunday city band concerts. Sheftic was among the businessmen who supported concerts. He offered to extend hours at the West Side and Ellis boat houses, pledging 25 percent of a day's proceeds to the fund.

On Jan. 31, 1954, Ed Sheftic celebrated his 75th birthday. Sheftic's Boat Houses took up 50 of those years. By then the business included sales of watercraft and rental of boats to people who owned their own outboard motors.

When he died Oct. 21, 1957, Sheftic's was operating 53 motorboats, canoes and rowboats on the Cedar River.