What A View Over Cedar River

This picture pretty much tells it all.

High on a cliff, 90 feet above the water's edge, Cedar Rapids industrialist and philanthropist Howard Hall built his cottage retreat. The three-bedroom home, accessible by taking back country roads, overlooks Palisades-Kepler State Park and the flowing Cedar just up river from Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Here's what I wrote about it in today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette:

CEDAR RAPIDS - Before Cedar Rapids industrialist Howard Hall moved into the historic Brucemore mansion in Cedar Rapids, he built a three-bedroom stone cottage overlooking the Cedar River and Palisades-Kepler State Park.

Yep, he built the cottage in 1935; moved into Brucemore in 1937 where he lived until his death in 1971 and where his widow, Margaret, lived until she died in 1981.

We've all heard about Brucemore, the 30-room mansion that's now a tourist attraction.

But, what about that cottage? I've always wondered about it when I gaze across the Cedar River from the park to that private oasis beautifully perched on a cliff 90 feet above the water.

The cottage came to my attention again when I learned Ernie Buresh, Cedar Rapids banker, had donated it to the fundraising campaign for the new Jones Regional Medical Center in Anamosa. It has since been bought by Dr. Chirantan Ghosh, a Cedar Rapids oncologist.

While Ernie was reluctant to talk about it - “Howard always had this saying, keep your name out of the newspaper, especially the obituaries,” Ernie laughs - he agreed to show me photographs.

“There's no place like it on Earth,” Ernie says, shuffling through old photos of the stone patio, the tiger skin rug in the living room, the heavy woodwork.

It seems that Howard, owner of Iowa Steel and Iron Works and Iowa Manufacturing Co., used the cottage southwest of Mount Vernon as a getaway. Ernie and his wife, Joanne, became frequent guests in the 1960s after Ernie began managing City National Bank when Howard was its president.

“We had this routine,” says Ernie, 83. “We went to all the (University of Iowa) football games with him. We'd all drive our own cars. After the game he had us go to Palisades and build a fire. He'd go home and get the dogs to bring them out.”

Interestingly, fire destroyed the cottage in 1938 after a lightning strike and it had to be rebuilt. Maybe that's why he had Ernie build the fire and why the Halls left the cottage to the Bureshes.

But, more likely, the cottage was left to them for their Jones County connection. Howard and Joanne grew up in Onslow. Howard referred to himself as “just a blacksmith from Jones County.” The Bureshes lived in Anamosa for 29 years.

Through the years the cottage was fixed up. The Bureshes' remodeling included adding central air. But, since they rarely used it, the donation seemed appropriate.

“Howard would be fine with it,” Ernie says. “He'd be glad it helped fund a Jones County project.”