Mansion with storied past listed for sale in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — One of the last-standing mansions in a neighborhood once lined with grand homes has been listed for sale.

Most recently known as the Moniker 86 Social Club, the mansion, at 821 Third Ave. SE, is listed for sale for $385,000.

See interior photos on Zillow

According to the Cedar Rapids Assessor’s Office, the house was built in 1870, though early dates are occasionally off by a number of years.

Cedar Rapids Historian Mark Stoffer Hunter said the mansion, in the area of Cedar Rapids once known as “Mansion Hill,” was the home of Maria Carpenter, widow of prominent businessman Gabriel Carpenter, and their children starting in the mid 1880’s.

Before this home, the Carpenter family had a large estate where Metro High School — the former Tyler Elementary School — is located, he said, noting that the Carpenters moved so the site could be used for the school, and they also provided land for Oak Hill Cemetery on Mount Vernon Road SE.

See photos of the 50th anniversary of Metro High School

A descendant of Gabriel and Maria, George Carpenter, provided the early photo of the mansion to the owners of Moniker 86, and speculated that might be his great-grandmother, Maria, sitting in front of the house.

Carpenter noted that Gabriel’s first wife, Catherine Pearce, died in 1847, and the couple had several children, including Dr. Seymour Carpenter, who was a surgeon in the Civil War.

Maria Wiley brought at least two children from her previous marriage, and with Gabriel, the couple had more children, including George Carpenter’s grandfather, George Pierce Carpenter, born in 1861 in Cedar Rapids. His grandfather died before he was born and Carpenter, who lives out of state, has never seen the former family home in Cedar Rapids, but would like to visit.

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.

Customers posted their memories on Facebook of both the funeral home and restaurants, with one noting she was engaged at Cafe de Klos, and the couple went back to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary at Moniker 86.

Others cited “spooky” unexplained phenomena in the former mortuary.

Moniker 86 was open from March 2019 to March 2020, when the Covid pandemic forced it to close, along with other businesses.

Co-owner Jennifer Aiels said it reopened for a short time until the August 2020 hurricane-strength derecho windstorm in Iowa caused about $300,000 in damage to the mansion.

Further devastation occurred when a rogue firework hit the building in July 2022, she said, causing a fire.

The contractor hired to rebuild completed only about one-fourth of the work and then left with the couple’s money, Aiels said.

“It broke me financially and also spiritually,” she said. “I had no other choice but to let it go back to the bank,” which is selling the building.

Preservation advocates, including members of Save CR Heritage, are concerned about the future of the building, which is located in the MedQuarter. The medical district has a history of demolishing historic buildings, including First Christian Church, across the street in the same block.

That demolition gave rise to the nonprofit.

More: Save CR Heritage looks back at past decade