CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Finding the right owner for a historic property can be a challenge, but a price incentive might help with one historic mansion in Cedar Rapids.

Listed at $385,000 when it went on the market about nine months ago, the grand home-turned mortuary-turned restaurant at 821 Third Ave. SE is now listed at $250,000.

Learn more about the mansion’s storied past

Most recently known as the Moniker 86 Social Club, the three-bedroom, six bath mansion was built around 1870, according to city records.

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 what happened after the Oak Hill Cemetery stone wall was removed

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

Features of the brick building include a functional commercial elevator, formerly used to move caskets; a full-service kitchen, bar, multiple dining areas and elegant light fixtures. Furnishings and appliances are included in the sale. The upper two levels provide living areas, with a full kitchen, dining space, bar, bedrooms, bathrooms and loft beds.

Preservation advocates, including members of Save CR Heritage, are concerned about the future of the building, which is located in the MedQuarter, due to the district’s history of demolishing historic buildings. The demolition of First Christian Church, across the street in the same block, gave rise to the nonprofit.

See more interior photos on Zillow, on the building’s listing and below.

Contact Ashley Elizabeth at Pinnacle Realty for more information at: 319-450-8785 or ashley@pinnaclerealty.com