Save CR Heritage

Our 501 c 3 non profit was organized in 2012 in response to the demolitions of the historic 1875 era People's Church to make way for an office and 1912 era First Christian Church for a parking lot. We are all volunteers with the majority of us having full time jobs. We do this because of our love for repurposing, saving legacies, raising awareness, and saving buildings from the landfill.

Save CR Heritage works to preserve the city's historic buildings through awareness and education. We have hosted tours to highlight buildings that have been designated as at risk for demolition or have been restored. In 2015 we moved and rehabbed the late 1800s Frankie House which was then sold to a family as affordable housing in the Wellington Heights Neighborhood. We do salvaging of houses and buildings that are slated for demolition to acquire materials such as doors windows flooring trim and furnishings. Basically we save these beautiful items from the landfill and sell the items to people who want to repurpose the items. We hold monthly sales at the Halverson House in order to raise monies to help cover the moving costs of moving this house from 5th Avenue to our lot at Second Avenue. We work frequently with Mark Stouffer Hunter to give educational tours of specific homes and neighborhoods in Cedar Rapids. We hold educational sessions for homeowners on items such as window restoration and other preservation skills. We frequently attend neighborhood association meetings to educate people on what our organization does for the CR Community. We have an inventory of items at our Halverson House headquarters that needs priced and placed into a computer inventory database. When we salvage a building or house we then must clean and label the items appropriately for a great majority of items we sell re either purchased through Facebook MARKET place or our monthly sales at our headquarters the Halverson House.