Time Machine: The Blair House

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Blair House in Washington, D.C., was built in 1824 as a private home. The Blair House that served as city hall in Washington, Iowa, was built in 1881.

By comparison, the Blair House on First Avenue in Cedar Rapids is a youngster at age 50. It was constructed on the site of a grand home built between 1908 and 1909 by John Stoney Ely, son of Cedar Rapids pioneer Dr. John F. Ely.

The three-story house with a ballroom on the top floor was located on grounds that extended from 21st Street to 23rd Street. It measured about 35 feet by 125 feet with 25 rooms, and was 190 feet back from First Avenue. It had 385 feet of frontage and a 522-foot-deep lot and cost $23,000 at a time when most homes were built for between $2,000 to $4,000.

When John Stoney Ely's son, John Montague Ely, was married in 1912, the newlyweds moved into the mansion with his parents until the carriage house/barn on the property could be remodeled into a residence.

Grading for the Northview Addition in the vicinity of the Ely mansion began in 1913.

On Nov. 18, 1949, family and friends gathered at the Elys' home to celebrate John S. Ely's 96th birthday. Five days later, 22 Republicans gathered there to organize the fifth precinct, with Ely as precinct committeeman.

John S. Ely and his wife died within 19 days of each other in early 1950 and were buried together in Oak Hill Cemetery.

The 3 1/2 acre estate had been up for sale for about two years when United Fire & Casualty expressed interest in converting the mansion into offices.

On May 1, 1952, the landmark Ely mansion was proposed for rezoning from A-residential to C-Commercial. Ely heirs John M. Ely and Mary Esther Simmons of Cedar Rapids and Martha Ely Marquis of Boston said that potential buyer Scott McIntyre of United Fire and Casualty planned an 80-by 150-foot addition to the back of the house as well as a parking area.

When neighbors objected to the rezoning, the owners withdrew their request.

The property finally s was old to McIntyre without rezoning in November 1953 for $40,000.

After several more attempts to get the property rezoned, McIntyre offered the mansion to Franklin Junior High for the 1956-57 school year to alleviate overcrowding until the new Washington High School was finished. A district study found that probably wouldn't work because the mansion didn't have space for physical education, art, music, shop and home economics, meaning the students would have to be shuttled to the Franklin building.

The teens still managed to have a party in the mansion ballroom in May 1956.

The house was subject to vandals in 1957 when nine basement windows were smashed.

The Council continued to deny office use of the property until 1963, when it was purchased by the Reilly Corp. of Des Moines. Reilly revealed plans to build a $1.5 million luxury apartment building. $200,000 of which went toward buying the 4 1/2-acre site. In addition to the lot the Ely house stood on, the property included portions of three lots across from a vacated alley and one lot facing 23rd Street.

The mansion had to go.

'When it was removed, it was done so with the largest controlled fire in the state,' said John M. Ely in a later interview with The Gazette.

Blair House of Des Moines, a limited partnership in which John E. Reilly of Des Moines, a Boss Hotels Co. executive, was general partner, hired general contractor Arthur Neuman and Brothers of Des Moines and Brooks-Borg of Des Moines as architects. Financing came from Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States with interim financing by Merchants National Bank of Cedar Rapids.

Excavation started May 21, 1964, with occupancy scheduled for June 1, 1965.

Plans showed in addition to 75 living units, four of which would be penthouses, were an attached 100-car heated garage with enclosed passage to lower lobby elevators, a heated swimming pool, a large recreation room with a catering kitchen and bar for entertaining, an air-conditioned laundry with washers and dryers and two elevators.

As many trees as possible on the site were preserved, as well as the stone wall at First Avenue.

The main lobby was at driveway level.

The building permit issued for the project listed the construction cost at $1.45 million.

Tenants who signed on during construction got to select their apartment and pick colors for bathroom tile and appliances.

When Blair House was about 50 percent completed, Peter F. Bezanson Properties Inc. of Cedar Rapids signed on as general partner, placing substantial ownership of the property in the hands of Cedar Rapids businessmen. Hedges Associates Inc. became rental agent.

As Blair House neared completion, Killian's Interior Design Studio furnished three apartments for an early open house. By December 1966, Blair House was nearing complete rental.

An earthquake rolled across the Midwest at about 11 a.m. Nov. 9, 1968. Minor damage occurred elsewhere in the city; residents in the steel and concrete high-rise's penthouse apartments felt the building shake a little, but those on lower levels felt nothing.

The Blair House Owners Association, Inc., a privately held company, was established in July 1979 when the apartment house was converted into Blair House Condominiums.

If you go

There will be an open house from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Blair House. Refreshments will be served, and tours of public areas will be available. For more information, call (319) 826-1444.