Time Machine: The Sunshine Mission

CEDAR RAPIDS - There is now a parking lot at 225 First St. SE in Cedar Rapids, the first home of the Sunshine Mission, founded by Francis K. Ward in 1895.

Ward was born in 1854 in Cambridgeport, Mass. He was orphaned as a child and lived with his grandmother for a little while. His next guardian was cruel and the young Frank ran away, landing in Iowa.

He first worked for a coffee company in Davenport, then on a farm near Monticello before becoming a newsagent or 'news butcher” - a purveyor of newspapers, candy, fruit, etc. - on trains running between Dubuque and Sioux City.

When he stopped over in Farley, he met Ella, who became his wife, and at another stopover in Storm Lake, he wound up in a tent revival and became a Christian.

Ward moved his family from Dubuque to Epworth and opened a real estate office. He was on his way to prosperity when Lyman Pierce, general secretary of the YMCA in Cedar Rapids, asked him to become the Y's membership secretary.

Ward thought about it for a while. It meant a much smaller income, but the work was appealing. Finally, he told himself that if it was God's will, he would do it.

He began his duties at the Cedar Rapids YMCA on June 15, 1895. He was positive and energetic, announcing his goal was to increase the Y's membership to 1,200.

Three months later he was led to the home of Jay Pendegast, who lived in four rooms above 225 South First St. Ward befriended the troubled invalid, converted him and began to hold nightly meetings in Pendegast's home. The family moved out of two rooms to make room for the mission in exchange for Mrs. Pendegast being hired as janitress.

When the ministers of Cedar Rapids formed a mission board, they asked Ward to head up a new, non-sectarian organization that would serve the homeless, destitute and needy of the community.

On Sept. 26, the mission committee decided on the name 'Sunshine Mission” and the new project got off the ground. The officers and executive committee adopted a constitution and bylaws and set meetings each evening except Wednesday and Saturday until further notice.

The committee identified the Sunshine Mission as an auxiliary to the city's churches and made every effort not to conflict with them. The mission relied heavily on the churches for support.

Ward sold his home in Epworth and moved his family to a house at 354 Rockford Rd. SW. A year later, he was asked to make the Sunshine Mission his full-time job.

As the mission grew, it moved several times before purchasing the Rudolph warehouse building at First Avenue and First Street NE in 1908 for $26,500. In December 1911, the mission began a campaign to raised funds to remodel the building, and in less than 25 hours, $25,000 was raised. It officially became the home of the Sunshine Mission in 1912. The basement bunk offered a place for transient men to clean up and sleep. On the first floor was a chapel along with offices. The second floor was for women and housed a day nursery - something the mission could offer for the first time to working mothers. The third floor was occupied by offices, an area for visiting missionaries and Ward's special 'Upper Room,” a place for meetings or prayer equipped with a table and lots of chairs.

On the roof, a giant electric sign pointed the way to the mission.

Undertaker John B. Turner had rooms in the rear of the building and The Gazette building was next door on First Avenue.

The mission was so well known by 1914 that the first of the yearly conventions of the International Union of Gospel Missions was held in Cedar Rapids.

The Sunshine Mission moved again in 1929 when a new federal building/post office (City Hall in 2016) was planned for the First Street site.

A cornerstone was laid for a new mission home at 121-123 Second St. NE in the spring of 1930. On it was engraved Frank 'Daddy” Ward's name. He had occupied his new office for a relatively short time when he died June 5, 1933, after a heart attack. Ward's body lay in state in the Ella Ward Chapel at the mission while hundreds of friends paid respects to the patron of 'the man in the street.” He was buried in Linwood Cemetery.

His successor as superintendent at the mission was his son, the Rev. Frank H. Ward, who had served as assistant superintendent for 19 years.

The Mission's 50th anniversary celebration lasted a week in 1945. The widow of famous evangelist Billy Sunday led services each night except Tuesday. That night, the Rev. Frank H. Ward related the history of the mission, accompanied by slides.

He said that one of his father's friends and an early advocate of the Sunshine Mission was Gazette Publisher Fred Faulkes. Faulkes purchased clothing and shoes for children, contributed money and published stories in the paper in support of the mission's work.

The last day of the Sunshine Mission's 72-year life span was Saturday, July 29, 1967. The building was razed as part of the city's urban renewal project. The mission board's president, Anthony Pleune, said, 'We couldn't find another building, and to rebuild would take everything we had.”

The board got about $200,000 for the building and planned to set up a foundation for charitable works. The mission's day-care program was taken over by Olivet Presbyterian Church.