Home > Blogs > The Archive Attic

From the archives, I pulled this farewell column by Walter Cronkite, who died on Friday, July 17, 2009. It was published in The Gazette on Aug. 21, 2004.In the olden, more graceful days, a writer temporarily or permanently deserting the profession  surely would say that he was "laying down his pen." In our modern digital age, the  equivalent declaration would be, I suppose, that I am unplugging my computer.That would not only be far less graceful, but it would likely ...

Continue reading this entry »

Corrine Shover, whose memoriam ran in today's paper, will be remembered by many Cedar Rapids baby boomers as a decades-long  source of grace and fashion.An interesting article ran on Nov. 5, 1972, that reported on Mrs. Shover's foray into politics:SOMETHING DIFFERENT is in the offing this afternoon for voters in the 12th senatorial district embracing all or parts of Jones, Cedar, Jackson, Clinton and Scott counties. Barbara Marian of West Branch, the Democratic candidate running against Senate Republican Leader Clifton ...

Continue reading this entry »

There’s a Duck Pond Pavilion in Ellis Park – but where’s the pond?   There’s evidence it existed back in the 1920s  according to a July 9, 1921 edition of  The Evening Gazette:WATER LILIES PUT IN POND IN ELLIS PARKLovers of natural beauty particularly those persons who have scoffed at the phrase, "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these," should go to Ellis park early tomorrow morning and view the water  lilies of  varied hue which have been ...

Continue reading this entry »

In light of Cecelia Hanley's "corny debate" in today's Gazette, I found this sweet corn party in Vinton in September 1954. There was a Sweet Corn Queen, political speeches and national media chomping on ears of corn. Frank Nye covered the event for a Page One story. I love his description of the day:They arrived early in the morning for the hour-long parade and they stayed late for the street dance.   Between times they crowned a queen,  ate sweet corn, ''did" ...

Continue reading this entry »

   The Cedar Rapids School Board followed the local tradition of naming schools for presidents when the city’s youngest high school was named after President John F. Kennedy. But a Nov 14, 1965, Gazette story revealed that four other names were suggested for the school:   “In a letter to school board members, President Ernest Pence listed five possible names for the new school. The names were not his ideas, he said, but were suggestions made to him by taxpayers.   “The ...

Continue reading this entry »

The Braille School in Vinton not only had a band in 1950s, the band marched in the Lions International Parade in New York on Tuesday, June 30, 1959. Here's the photo that ran on the back page of the July 1 Gazette:                                   "Members of Vinton's Braille and Sight Saving school band marched down New York's Fifth avenue Tuesday at the 42nd annual parade of Lions International. Directed by John Best, the band is believed to be the first of its kind ...

Continue reading this entry »

Fifty years ago, on June 23, 1959, The Gazette published a small item about vandals and a tombstone. Why would anyone want to remove a tombstone from a grave and deposit it someplace else?  But even more mysterious is where that tombstone was in the first place. An obituary ran July 12, 1957, for Gertrude E. Duncan. She was buried at Cedar Memorial.

This photo ran on Page One in The Gazette on June 16, 1959.  The Mercury-Atlas 6  flight achieved orbit on Feb. 20, 1962.

A story published June 1, 1903, related the relatively minor damage of the Cedar River's flooding at the end of May. Particularly interesting was how the high water affected the city's dogs.Was the cracker plant the Continental Biscuit Co. , whose address in the 1903 City Directory was 321 S. First St., or was it the former Shaver & Dows Cracker Factory at 87-89 S. First, which was sold in August 1890 to the New York Biscuit Co. It was sold ...

Continue reading this entry »

   In the summer of 1954, the Junior Chamber of Commerce looked into buying a portable playground for the city. They discovered Detroit had purchased one for $30,000. That was too much for their budget, so they set out to create one.An Around the Town item on Aug. 1, 1954, described its construction: WE'VE COME ACROSS a few statistics on construction of the city's new Playmobile that you might be interested in. Members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which constructed ...

Continue reading this entry »

At the death of the last Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, I thought it would be interesting to see what coverage The Gazette had of Cedar Rapids' Walter Douglas, who was a casualty of that tragedy.This pair of stories (published April 22, 1912) was moving, especially Mahalla Dutton Douglas' description of the ship's sinking.

The Iowa Islamic Heritage and Cultural Center, which has a long history in northwest Cedar Rapids,  is just recovering from the flood of 2008. In the 1950s, The Gazette ran an article each Saturday labeled "East Iowa Churches." On June 14, 1952, the article focused on the "The Moslem Temple in Cedar Rapids." It focused on the mosque's 16th anniversary.

This story ran on page 1 of the March 11, 1968 Gazette:

This photo was published on June 9, 1958.

This article appeared in the Evening Gazette, Feb. 4, 1908:AMERICAN AUTO COMPANY INTRODUCES NEW AUTOReceives First Shipment of Pontiac Motor Vehicles, a Revelation in Horseless VehiclesThe American Auto company has received its first shipment of Pontiac motor vehicles, high-wheeled autos, which are a revelation to all who are interested in automobiles. The Pontiac sells for $600, without top,  has double cylinder motor 15 horse power, friction clutch with drive on both rear wheels. The engine is water-cooled and the ...

Continue reading this entry »

That's what Cedar Rapidians did in the first half of the 20th Century.The photos in this clipping were taken on a hot July day in 1928.

In 1926, Lutherans within an 50-mile radius of Cedar Rapids began fund-raising to buy the old Prospect Place at Sixteenth Avenue and Ninth Street SW. By June 30, 1928, the remodeled West Side Hospital opened to the public.An article about the hospital's open house said:"Situated on the top of Young's hill on the west side, the hospital commands a view of wooded grounds that encompass an entire city block. The old structure is picturesque and was one of the first ...

Continue reading this entry »

(From The Evening Gazette, March 23,1897)       The one thing which above all others interests the people of Cedar Rapids today is the stage of water in the Cedar. During the day it reached a point higher than has been recorded since 1884. Some idea of the progress of the rise may be had from the following observations, taken by a Gazette reporter from the government gauge at First avenue bridge:6 p.m. last evening, 9 ft 6 in; 9 p.m., 10 ...

Continue reading this entry »

A reader, intrigued by Kaye Ross's story about the Cedar Rapids Area Convention & Visitors Bureau bus tour, called to tell us about the old stage coach stop and inn on E Avenue NW. She often heard the inn's owner and her grandfather talk about it.She said where the garage is now, meals were cooked for the inn's guests, and an attached barn extending north housed the horses.She also said all the rooms on the top floor were tiny, only ...

Continue reading this entry »

In honor of Cecilia's two weeks of  vegetarianism and because I love to read old recipes I went looking for some meatless dishes from long ago. I found these in a Sept. 16, 1907, Evening Gazette:Broiled Tomatoes—Three or four good sized tomatoes, properly sliced, are quite  sufficient for a small family service of broiled tomatoes.  After peeling them and chilling them to keep them firm, slice them. Season with salt and pepper and dip them in oil and then in sifted ...

Continue reading this entry »

That Osgood Shepherd, supposed horse thief and innkeeper of  ill repute, was the first white settler in what is now Cedar Rapids, has long been established. The tree of Five Seasons was erected about where his cabin was built. But what more is known of Shepherd?In March 1909, workmen building the new Cedar Rapids Candy Co. were startled by this discovery:    While the workmen who are digging the excavation for the new building that is to be erected by the ...

Continue reading this entry »

   Mother’s Day observances were held for the first time without the active blessing of the day’s founder on May 8, 1949.   Miss Anna M. Jarvis of Philadelphia, who almost singlehandedly created the nation's most sentimental holiday, died in November 1948 in a Pennsylvania sanatorium.    Anna grew up in Grafton, W. Va., where her mother taught Sunday school in St. Andrew's Methodist church. Each year Mrs. Jarvis conducted a celebration honoring the mothers of her students.    After her mother died ...

Continue reading this entry »

David V. Wendell, a historian and former Marion resident who now lives in Chicago, was interviewed for a story on the county's 165th anniversary that ran in The Gazette in 2004."... Marion's hold on the county seat was steadily weakening. Cedar Rapids, which had been smaller than Marion when the county was established, now exceeded the quaint residential town by more than three times its size.    "Petitions were launched throughout the end of the 19th century and into the 1900s seeking the transfer of ...

Continue reading this entry »