CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Clearing the way for “green space,” a mid-Century convent designed by acclaimed Cedar Rapids architect Leo Peiffer has been demolished.
The Cedar Rapids Historic Preservation Commission placed a 30-day hold on the demolition permit for the 1960s convent in October 2024, but the hold expired in November, and the building — at 2107 J St. SW — was demolished on Feb. 24 and 25, 2025.
Commission members cited Peiffer’s design of the solid brick convent for St. Ludmila’s Catholic Church, as well as the 1958-built elementary school, which the parish demolished in February 2023. He also designed other schools, public buildings such as the Cedar Rapids Five Seasons Center, National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, churches and other buildings, including his own mid-Century home in Cedar Rapids.
Machinery is positioned to demolish the St. Ludmila’s convent in February 2025. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The 100-foot-long convent provided 16 bedrooms, two dining rooms, a music room, chapel and a community room for the Sisters of Notre Dame who taught at St. Ludmila School. The nuns had previously lived in a farmhouse they purchased in 1914, when they moved to Iowa from what was then Czechoslovakia.
Redwood mullions — vertical bars that divide an entire window in sections — in the convent’s chapel were designed to match the two-story glass and redwood mullion stairwells at each end of the building.
In preparing for demolition, a time capsule was discovered when the cornerstone was removed, which was opened last fall in Omaha, Nebraska, where the retired Notre Dame nuns are living.
See: Contents of time capsule unveiled
Demolition debris from the convent is dumped into a truck on Feb. 25, 2025. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Cedar Rapids Historian Mark Stoffer Hunter noted that the 1926 St. Ludmila’s Church was demolished in the summer of 2000, with a new church erected in 2001.
The Rev. Kenneth Glaser of St. Ludmila’s Church said a committee examined the properties four years ago and determined it would be too costly to make the convent accessible under Americans with Disabilities Act standards and to add air conditioning.
Glaser said the convent had been used for offices until a new building to replace the school was constructed and opened last year.
The nuns had stopped living in the convent about 25 years ago, he said, adding that the site will be used as green space.
The new St. Ludmila parish center is shown next to the church in February 2025. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
St. Ludmila is known for its annual Kolach Festival, which dates back to 1938.
Kolaches, a favorite Czech pastry, are the main attraction at the annual event.
See photos from the 2019 kolache bake and more from the convent demolition, below:
Well now that parish has demolished two convents, two schools, one rectory building, and one church, all of which were a part of my youth.
Sorry to hear that, Ruth. Not much of the history is left there.
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