Welcome to the Historic Homes of Main Street Cedar Falls.  This page was designed to give an educational and historic view of some of the early Main Street homes and the people who owned these houses.  Historic Homes of Main Street, Cedar Falls is a section of a whole project titled The History of Main Street, Cedar Falls.

History of Main Street Homes:

    Many of the original Historic Homes on Main Street were torn down and replaced by newer homes or the lot was taken over by a business.  The majority of the Main Street homeowners were middle-class citizens.  The average cost of a Cedar Falls home in the late 1800s and early 1900s ranged from six thousand to ten thousand dollars.  With little money and even smaller room for financial error, building and buying homes was an investment of an owner's time and money.  Their homes represented more than just a roof over their heads.  Homes represented the owner's social and economic status.  These homes were finely built, crafted in the owner's preferred style.  An owner chould choose from styles such as Italianate, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman/Bungalow, or opt for a combination of styles.  A writer in the 1904 Cedar Falls Illustrated gives a vivid account of Cedar Falls neighborhoods.  "No one can take a ride over Washington and Main Sixth and Twelfth streets, and the region about the city part, without being more the satisfied with the artistic beauty of the dwelling and the surrounding.  For he will have seen some of the most beautiful homes in the gaziest, prettiest town in all the state."

    As the years went on, Cedar Falls began to grow, attracting those seeking work, land, and the quiet and peaceful life Iowans enjoyed.  Such people were southern African Americans who moved North in the early twenties and again after World War II.  In Waterloo, many African Americans found work at the Central Illinois Railroad and in industrial plants of Cedar Falls.  Despite this large number of blacks working in Cedar Falls, they were not allowed to live in the area.  It was a general understanding among the community that non-Caucasians would not be allowed to rent or own homes in Cedar Falls.  These restrictions were usually written into the abstract of the lot.  In 1946, a more tangible measure was taken to restrict non-Caucasians from moving into all-white neighborhoods.  Waterloo and surrounding communitites on July 1, 1946, filed a Declaration of Restrictions to prevent non-Caucasians from moving into white neighborhoods.  The Supreme Court would later rule that such a restriction could not be enforced in the courts.  Nevertheless, this did not stop realtors and neighborhood homeowners from keeping non-Caucasians out.

*    Historic Homes of Cedar Falls

*    Style of Homes in Cedar Falls

*    Declaration of Restrictions