Sitting Silent

While working on a story for Sunday's Gazette, I took tours of some of the historic downtown buildings, including Veterans Memorial Building, which housed City Hall before the flood. A few of my favorites are below, and you can see the rest in a slideshow here. For those not familiar with Cedar Rapids, Vets Memorial is on Mays Island, in the middle of the Cedar River (it's the building on the right in this photo). We were the only city in the world to have its municipal offices on an island.

There are shadows on the wall where photos once hung in the mayor's office. Papers are still scattered across the desk.


The in/out board in one office lists everyone as 'out.' Although, after the offices were evacuated, it's doubtful anyone came looking for the people on this list at this office.


City council chambers have a fine layer of dust over everything. Notes from what was probably their last meeting there (that would have been June 9, if memory serves) still hang on the wall.


The guts of the building are exposed, ready for rebuilding.