And, Now, for Something Completely Different

I've been waxing on about my family for the last couple of years, but I also have another passion - the history of the town where I grew up. Cedar Falls, Iowa. When I was 17 and freshly graduated, I wanted to get out of this town as quickly as possible and spent the next 35 years living in Germany and in many different states in the US, before finally returning here when my children were all grown and I was old enough to appreciate a quieter, milder, kinder pace of life and rich history of this little piece of paradise.

One of the things we did was buy an old home in the historic downtown region. The street is lined with all types of homes built from the late 1800s to the 1920s. Mayors, doctors, factory owners, and other town notables lived in this area, which is now perhaps not as grand as it once was, but is lovingly cared for by the owners of today who see the value in the old home.

It was love at first sight when I saw the house go online nearly five years ago. It sat there, just waiting for us when we were ready to hunt for a home and get on with the next part of our lives. Once we settled in, I delved into the history of our house.

Robert Speers

This house was part of the Speers addition, which was subdivided and platted long before the house was built. Most likely, prior to the house being built, the family lived in a log cabin on the property. That would have been quite normal. Born in 1828 in Pennsylvania, Robert P. Speer, came to Cedar Falls in 1853. He was a nurseryman, lawyer, and a Captain in Company B, 31st Regiment, of the Iowa Volunteer Brigade which served the North in the Civil War. Speer actively involved himself in developing the city of Cedar Falls. From the original "Overman & Brown" tract of land, he purchased and platted what became "RP Speer Addition" (Section 12, 89 lots, 14 blocks) in Cedar Falls in 1856. Mr. Speer lived to nearly 80 years old, dying in 1909. I'm guessing he was loaded with bucks.


In 1856, Zacheus McNally purchased Lot 5, Block 2 of the RP Speer Addition. Unfortunately,

Zacheus died in 1886 and no building had begun. He died intestate so his heirs, wife Rosetta, son Frank and daughter Kate had to go to court to get title to the property.

Rosetta McNally, her son Frank (Elsia) and daughter Catherine McNally hung onto the property at Lot 5, Block 2 once they worked through the probate issues after Zacheus' death. In 1894, they took out a loan from the Cedar Valley Building and Loan Association and built themselves a house at what would become 920 Washington St.

Professor Bernhard Dubbert was the director of the conservatory of music at Upper Iowa University

Prof Bernhard Dubbert

in Fayette, IA starting in 1894 and had previously taught in public schools for many years. He was born in Sonnenborn, Germany in 1861. He married Minnie E. West of Lake Park IA in 1893 after having been one of his music pupils. They had two children, Ruth, born in Laurens in 1894 and Rudolph, born in 1897. Mrs. Dubbert was very active in the civic organizations of Cedar Falls. Their children both attended Iowa State Normal School/State College of Iowa. They purchased their home in Cedar Falls (920 Washington) in 1902 from the McNally's for $5,000 and owned it until 1931. They also maintained a home in Fayette County. Mrs. Dubbert seemed to be a bit of a social butterfly - and the "society" here would have suited her better than semi-rural/rural Fayette County.

The Dubbert's daughter, Ruth Dubbert Claxton and her husband Forrest B. Claxton purchased the house from her parents in 1931 but don't seem to have lived here, while the mother did. They retained title for the most part until 1937 when it was sold back to Minnie, who held deed to the property at 920 Washington until 1940. Ruth graduated from Iowa Normal in 1916, taught school for a couple years, then married Forrest. They lived in Fayette for all of their married lives except when he was serving in the war. She died in 1962 and he died at 89 in 1979. I'm going to go out on a limb, based on the additional loans taken out, that this was converted to apartments upstairs to help support Mrs. Dubbert after Mr. Dubbert died. At least until I get more information.

Mary Billman Judd purchased 920 Washington from Minnie Dubbert in 1940. In 1949, the house was named part of the "MF-Multiple Family District" which I believe means Mrs. Judd, who was older at

the time of the purchase, ran a boarding house of some sort. She owned the property until 1951. The extensive renovations done to the house sometime after Dr. Dubbert died and the Lebeda/Hadachek time included setting this up with multiple entries, creating the apartments upstairs (adding a bath to the first bedroom, which shortened the staircase ceiling in one spot, closing off the servants backstairs and cutting them off at the bottom and creating a cupboard to hide it, adding a wall next to the living room which housed a hallway between a new entry and the living room/kitchen).

Joseph J. Hadachek and wife Mary Lebeda Hadachek purchased the house from Mary Billman Judd in 1951 and sold it to her brother 10 years later. From Lebeda family reports, the home was never lived in by the Hadacheks. Frequently, in days gone by, getting a home loan wasn't so easy. Many times family members purchased a home and the tenant-owner made payments. According to a granddaughter of the Lebeda's, the Lebeda's lived on College St with their kids and had a house fire. They needed to quickly find a home large enough for the group. The Hadachek's assisted in the purchase of the home and then it became the Lebeda's. Joseph C. Lebeda and his wife Nadine E. Lebeda put their name on the title in 1961.

The Lebeda's attended St Patrick’s Catholic Church, a short walk from the house. Joseph worked at Dick Witham Chevrolet. Nadine died in 1983 and Joseph in 1986. Their four sons sold the house in 1999. This was probably a rental/apartments from 1986-1999 Based on information from the Lebeda granddaughter, the family kept the apartment style upstairs despite having four boys to house. As the Lebeda's got older and the kids moved out, they rented out the

apartments and lived downstairs. My office was their bedroom. They extended the kitchen to house an eat-in kitchen area as well. The office upstairs was the kitchen for the larger apartment and the master bedroom was the living room of that apartment. The bedroom is what is our guest room. The second apartment was a studio with small kitchenette, bath, and bedroom.

Joseph Sevcik is a lawyer and now a judge in these here parts. He and his wife Lisa purchased Lot 5, Block 2 (920 Washington) from the Lebeda children in 1999. They converted this house back to a single family dwelling and made significant updates and improvements. They never lived here. In town they have taken on a couple of conversion projects to restore grand old homes to their former single-family glory.

A couple of tenured history professors at UNI first owned the single family conversion. They bought the house in Lot 5, Block 2 in 2001 from the Sevcik's and sold it to little old me in 2013.

I love this house, but it's shy a bedroom and I can see that though I may try to deny the inevitable aging we all do, I may need less stairs in the future. I will miss this old girl, my walks through the delightful neighborhood filled with good neighbors with my dogs each day, and the large, ancient maples that provide shade from the relentless heat of summer.

I'm sure Robert Speers would have no idea that Cedar Falls would remain what is has always been, a lovely university town with good people who would appreciate to this day the work he did to lay out his little part of the city.