Dense timberland, rolling hills, ravines, bluffs, and creeks teeming with birds, and other wildlife. A place of incredible beauty nestled between two growing towns in Black Hawk County, Iowa. This was the land owned by Charles A. Rownd at the turn of the twentieth century that would soon become the town of Cedar Heights.

    Rownd purchased the land as part of an early railroad venture in the late 1800s, which never panned out. He built his home on what is now the corner of University Avenue and McClain Drive in Cedar Falls. This beautiful land sparked the interests of several Waterloo and Cedar Falls residents, including Peter Melendy and Elizabeth and Luther H. Edwards.

    Melendy wanted a one hundred thirty-acre park set aside before the land was developed further. "Its surface is shaped into contours more graceful than science could have conceived, or art executed, while rugged hills toss their heads in natural pride and disdain at the idea of being restrained by plummet and line."1 Engineers were hired to design Bluffs Park with a lake containing a large bubbling spring, pathways, and an amphitheater near the bluffs. Five hundred lots were laid out for summer cottages and tent camping; however, the park never materialized as Melendy had wished. Mrs. N. O. Rownd was one of only a few area residents who purchased a lot to build a summer home here. This home, with some major renovations, remains at 1722 Oakland Road today. A scaled down version of Melendy's dream without the amphitheater was later developed as Lookout Park, located one block north of Grand Boulevard. Though falling short of Melendy's vision, the park affords a spectacular view of the river and surrounding countryside. Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Edwards settled in the area and gave it the name "Cedar Heights" because of the location on the bluffs and the cedar trees scattered over the land. Her early residence and role in naming the community gave Mrs. Edwards the title "Mother of Cedar Heights." 

    In 1908, L. H. Edwards optioned two hundred fifty acres of land owned by C. A. Rownd. He secured William Galloway, Mrs. Edwards's second cousin and owner of the Galloway Investment Company of Waterloo, as an associate to develop the land. Edwards was the visionary while Galloway had the capital and enterprise to realize the dream.