CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The mansion on a busy stretch of Cedar Rapids has undergone a number of “reincarnations” in its history, from a home to a mortuary to a variety of restaurants, with the latest iteration starting a new chapter as a plant shop.
Crazy Plant Gal opened Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, at 821 Third Ave. SE.
Related: Mansion with stored past listed for sale
“I was buying plants to relieve stress at work and it turned into this,” said owner Kim McGraw, a registered nurse. “I never intended to be doing this.”
Owner Kim McGraw stands on the sales floor of Crazy Plant Gal on opening day of the shop. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Initially selling plants she propagated from her home, McGraw decided to turn it into a business and when they saw the listing for the Third Avenue mansion, she and her husband took a leap of faith.
Most recently known as the Moniker 86 Social Club, the mansion was listed for sale more than a year ago.
Other than redecorating, McGraw and her husband, Brian, didn’t make many changes to the building, which dates back to at least 1870.
Not only did she open her plant shop in a portion of the first floor, but the couple is living there with one of their children — the others are all adults — and their dogs.
Reflections of the home’s stint as a mortuary and funeral home dot the sales floor, with signs and skeleton decorations.
Realistic scented candles are among items owner Kim McGraw creates and sells in her new shop. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
In addition to hundreds of plants, including 658 varieties of hoya — McGraw’s favorite — she also sells T-shirts, sparkling suncatchers, candles, and other handcrafted items.
The shop opened just in time for Valentine’s Day, and while she didn’t advertise except for posting on the shop’s Facebook page on opening morning, a steady number of customers streamed through the doors of the storied mansion on its first day.
Many shared memories of the building or asked if it’s haunted, she and her husband said with a laugh.
“We’ve seen the lights flicker on and off,” McGraw said, noting that the dogs at 2 a.m. once appeared to be looking at a figure in a room. “Sometimes, I think I’ve seen something.”
The three-bedroom, six bath mansion was built in an area of Cedar Rapids once known as “Mansion Hill,” said Cedar Rapids Historian Mark Stoffer Hunter, and was the home of Maria Carpenter, widow of prominent businessman Gabriel Carpenter, and their children starting in the mid-1880’s.
The Carpenter home is shown during its early years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (photo/Moniker 86 Social Club)
Starting around 1920, the mansion became home to Beatty Mortuary; later Beatty-Beurle Funeral Home, which was purchased by Murdoch Funeral Homes in 1973.
After the funeral home relocated to Linwood Cemetery in southwest Cedar Rapids, the mansion housed a series of fine-dining restaurants beginning in the 1980s, including Cafe de Klos, Daniel Arthur’s and Fusion.
Most recently, Moniker 86 Social Club served as a family-owned speakeasy serving cocktails and food made from scratch. Moniker 86 was open from March 2019 to March 2020, when the Covid pandemic forced it to close.
Plants grow near a window in the mansion. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Features of the brick building include a functional commercial elevator, formerly used to move caskets.
The one downside of the property is the lack of on-site parking, so customers need to park on the street, McGraw said.
“Otherwise, we love it,” she said.
The shop will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.
Read more about the mansion from Save CR Heritage and see more opening day photos, below:
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