What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 10am - 4pm Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm Saturday 1pm - 4pm Sunday 1pm - 4pm

Cedar Falls Historical Society

Home
United States
Cedar Falls, IA
Cedar Falls Historical Society

Website

Welcome! The Cedar Falls Historical Society operates three museums: The Victorian Home & Carriage House Museum, Little Red Schoolhouse, and Ice House Museum.

We hope you find posts here that inspire you to reflect on your own memories and history, and your place within our community of Cedar Falls, the country and the world. It also preserves local history through its extensive collection of artifacts, documents, and photographs and provides educational opportunities for all ages. The Victorian Home & Carriage House Museum and Little Red Schoolhouse are free to the public with donations accepted. The Ice House Museum admission is $5 per adult and is free for children 12 and under. To make a donation to support our mission, please visit our website: https://www.cedarfallshistory.org/take-action

The main aim of this page is to share tid-bits of Cedar Falls history and to complement our annual exhibit. We ALSO want to teach our followers about the Victorian Era, about ice harvesting, about one-room schools, and history in general. Sometimes we will just have fun things to share, as well!

10/30/2026

🎵 Welcome to Vinyl Memories: Spinnin’ Through Time, a monthly series ⏰

October Selection: “Funny How Time Slips Away” — Billy Walker (1961)

🎶 Released in 1961, Billy Walker’s “Funny How Time Slips Away” was written by Willie Nelson and became an early recording of one of country music’s enduring classics. The song reflects on how quickly time passes and how much can change between two people who haven’t seen each other in years.

⭐ What memories does this country classic bring back for you?

#1961

10/29/2026

In the spririt of looking back through time, and also of celebrating Halloween, we have this flashback to share! 😝 Pleated Jeans, a nostalgia website, has an amusing collection of 1980s Halloween costumes and images for you to peruse.

I am frighteningly familiar with the "plastic mask and shirt" combos in the post! 😱🤣 What costumes do your remember (or are trying to forget) from your childhood Halloweens?

https://pleated-jeans.com/2024/10/24/nostalgic-halloween-pictures-1980s/

Image:
1980s Halloween costumes from Plaid Stallion's blog, via Reddit

10/28/2026

Hooray--it's National Chocolate Day! Here at the Cedar Falls Historical Society, we are serious chocolate fans! It is with much delight that we celebrate National Chocolate Day today! 🍫 ❤️

One of several “chocolate” holidays each year (along with World Chocolate Day on July 7 and International Chocolate Day on September 13—Milton Hershey’s birthday--not to mention all the other chocolately-affiliated days), National Chocolate Day is celebrated annually on October 28.

Chocolate comes from the seeds of the Theobroma cacao tree. This tree, which grows in parts of Mexico, Central America and South America, has been cultivated for thousands years. After harvesting, the seeds are fermented, dried, roasted, and shelled. Chocolate liquor is made by grinding the nibs, and is then separated into two parts: the dark chocolate solids and the light cocoa butter. These are mixed with other ingredients such as sugar, milk or vanilla to make the desired type of chocolate. The chocolate is then tempered and molded, and packaged for sale. After the long and complicated journey from bean to bar, it is finally ready to be enjoyed!

Be sure to properly observe National Chocolate Day with a trip to our local gourmet chocolate shop, Chocolaterie Stam Cedar Falls, in downtown Cedar Falls. You can welcome new owners, Peggy and Matt Carroll! Their chocolates come in all shapes, sizes, and fillings, and are delicious! Check them out at 122 Main St, Cedar Falls. 🍫❤️

What is your favorite chocolate? Are you a milk, dark, or super-dark aficionado? "White chocolate" doesn't really count, OK? 🤎

Images:
Heart chocolate from Canva
Other photographs, courtesy of Stam’s page, used with permission

10/27/2026

As Roxanne Hoorn says in her Atlas Obscura collection (link below), visiting a cemetery can be an emotional, nostalgic, and sometimes spooky experience. Just in time for Halloween, we have an interesting assemblage of eleven "interactive" grave markers. From a word-find puzzle to a treasured cookie recipe, these quirky memorials are fun to read about!

Enjoy: https://www.atlasobscura.com/lists/interactive-graves

Image:
The Spritz Cookie recipe by Sam O'Brien, via Atlas Obscura (from the article)

10/26/2026

Dave Deibler, Cedar Falls musician and owner of Octopus is back with another post for "Music Mondays."

Drednex were a Cedar Falls Punk band that was formed by three University of Northern Iowa students in 1983. The band consisted of Paul Stanard/vocals & guitar, Quentin Duarte/guitar & vocals, Kelly Plumber/Drums, vocals and keyboards and Greg Honnold/bass & vocals. Ed Ware became the vocalist in 1985 after Stanard left for San Fransisco in 1985. Drednex formed after members had previously been in the bands ATOY, Cymrics, Acoustic Hiatus and The Beverage Men.

The band was influenced by the music of Bad Brains, Big Star, The Clash, Bob Marley, Augustus Pablo and the Dead Kennedys (among others). Early Reggae influences gave way to a harder Punk approach as the band matured. As their influences might indicate Drednex had an incredibly unique sound. The bands Punk/Reggae dynamic combined with a pro rural/small town attitude and political lyrics still sound distinct and original to this day. Drednex released two cassette only LPs including “Co-Op” in 1985 and “No Class Project” in 1987.

Drednex are an important part of Iowa’s music history as they were the first original Punk band in Cedar Falls. They are also important for encouraging and supporting the development of a local Indie music scene and local bands like Twelve Angry Reindeer, Blanket Party and House of Large Sizes. The Alternative/Indie music scene that exists today in the Cedar Valley can trace its origins in part to Drednex habit of inviting bands from across the State and the Country to play shows with them in Cedar Falls. Most of these shows happened at Stebs on College Hill, Dean’s Parkade Lounge and on the University of Northern Iowa campus. Some of those bands that made the trip to Cedar Falls include Stiff Legged Sheep, Das Damen, Pestilence, Vampire Lezboz, Pent Up Aggression and The Hollowmen. Drednex opened for some of the major players of the era including The Replacements, 10,000 Maniacs and Soul Asylum. The band was initially active from 1983-1987. Drednex played a reunion show in Iowa City in 2013.

https://drednex1.bandcamp.com/album/co-op

10/25/2026

I'm back! Here is my last Halloween post...

Halloween is primarily thought of as a holiday for young kids, but adults have been celebrating Halloween in their own way for many years. Popular adult celebrations of Halloween include going to haunted houses and attending Halloween parties.

Halloween celebrations have been occurring in the U.S. since at least the late 19th century, when Scottish and Irish heritage groups across the country organized their own celebrations of the holiday. Those celebrations usually focused more on Celtic traditions surrounding the holiday, but did feature some games we consider to be Halloween classics, like bobbing for apples. 🍎

Halloween parties have been occurring in Cedar Falls since at least the 1890s, with the first mention of a Halloween celebration appearing in an issue of a local newspaper from 1896. One notable instance of a local Halloween party involved the female attendees having to search for the male attendees before they could go to the actual party, and the newspaper reports that it took them about 2 hours to find all the hidden party goers. After that, they still had to find the actual location of the party.

Celebrations also occurred on UNI’s campus, with the college newspaper reporting about campus Halloween parties beginning in 1894. At one point, the graduating class of 1910 hosted a masquerade Halloween party on campus.

Halloween celebrations have occurred across Cedar Falls for many years, both on and off UNI’s campus and hosted by community members and college students alike. Halloween may be perceived as a holiday primarily for children, but adults shouldn’t let that stop them from going out and celebrating as well!

What’s your favorite way to celebrate Halloween? 🎃👻🧡💀🦅🦇

UNI History Department

Image:
"Halloween Games" by Howard Chandler Christy, 1912. From Library Of Congress Prints And Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA 🍎

10/24/2026

It's Immy again, with day 2 of my Halloween series...

Before Americans began to favor the treat part of trick or treat, the trick aspect was much more popular. Many young people went out on Halloween night to cause mischief in their communities, and during the 19th century, those pranks were mostly harmless. Most Americans lived in small communities and knew the neighbors and friends that were being pranked, so it was rare for a prank to permanently damage anything. Things changed as Americans began to move into crowded urban areas where they couldn’t possibly know everyone in their community. Young people began to get into more destructive mischief, doing things like vandalizing their teachers’ houses, toilet-papering their neighbors’ homes, or throwing rocks through windows.

Local newspapers from the 1890s tell us that Cedar Falls was not left out of the mischief caused by children and teenagers on Halloween. An 1895 article from the Cedar Falls Semi Weekly Gazette states that 6 boys were arrested on Halloween and that wagons and buggies were found “in trees, back yards, and on the mill dam”. Other articles from the local newspaper feature various authors complaining about what young people are getting up to on Halloween night, and many of the pranks they speak about seem to involve moving things to ridiculous locations. A foiled prank mentioned in an 1895 article from the Cedar Falls Semi Weekly Gazette involves blocking a bridge with outhouses.

Have you ever played a trick during Halloween? 💀🎃👻🧡🦇

Image:
Toilet papered residence Deerfield Michigan (cropped)
Dwight Burdette, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

UNI History Department

10/23/2026

Hi! It's Immy, again!

When you think of Halloween, you most likely think of trick or treating for candy, but that hasn’t always been a Halloween tradition. Trick or treating was common across the U.S. by the 1950s, but commercially produced candy was not yet the most popular item to give out. It wasn’t until the 1970s that commercially produced candy was what houses were expected to hand out to trick or treaters. This expectation was rooted in fears of what people were putting in homemade goods that were handed out to children.

Commercially produced candy in the United States began with chocolate, as Milton Hershey first created Hershey’s milk chocolate bars in 1900, turning a previously unaffordable luxury into an inexpensive treat. A little more than a decade later, Harry Burnett Reese began to work for Hershey. Whenhe left Hershey’s company to build his own factory, he produced many different types of candy, including his famous peanut butter cups. More popular chocolate treats would emerge in the coming years, since fruit flavored candy was still mainly produced by smaller local candy makers.

Sugar rationing put in place during WWII forced candy manufacturers to begin innovating and using other ingredients to keep making the treats Americans wanted. M&Ms and Jolly Ranchers became more mainstream during this period. Fruit flavored candy began to grow in popularity, but it wasn’t until the 70s and 80s that Americans began to see gummies on their shelves and in their Halloween buckets. The 80s brought the intriguing flavors of Sour Patch Kids and Airheads to American consumers. Candy remains an important part of Halloween and one that is a favorite of most Americans.

In Cedar Falls, we have Main Street Sweets that sells all sorts of treats to fulfill our candy desires!

What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

10/22/2026

Assisted by our trusty (and re-retired) maintenance man, Jim Weber, we've put together another timeline for 2026. It features one of his passions--CARS! Join us each month for another "120 years of cars" post.

Here is the next in our series—the 1997 Plymouth Prowler.

The Plymouth Prowler (which later became the Chrysler Prowler) was manufactured by DaimlerChrysler for the model years of 1997 through 2002. It was a two-door, two-seater sports car, best known for its “retro hot-rod” look, complete with hand-crafted aluminum bodywork and racer-style front wheels.
The Prowler was manufactured in Detroit, MI, and was offered for just six years. Only 11,702 Plymouth and Chrysler versions of the car were produced during that time.

The car had a V6 front-engine (with top speed at 118 mph) and a rear-drive configuration. Because of the limited trunk space caused by this set up, Prowler owners could buy a $5,000 matching Prowler trailer from Chrysler dealers. The trailer looked like the rear end of a Prowler, and had a smaller version of the five-spoke wheels found on the car. Prowlers came with a trailer hitch to accommodate the trailer option.

Other key features included power windows, keyless entry and door locks, leather-trimmed bucket seats, a leather-wrapped steering wheel with audio system controls mounted on the rear of the wheel, and a high-fidelity sound system with AM/FM stereo, cassette player, and a multi-disc CD changer as an extra option. Dual airbags, a digital odometer and full instrumentation, and air conditioning with manual controls were also a part of the standard package.

The 1997 Prowler came in one color--purple metallic, and the MSRP was around $38,300.

With less than 12,000 cars sold, the Prowler was not a particularly successful brand. Two major complaints from consumers were that it only had a V6 engine, and it only came with an automatic transmission—concerning indeed if the car was marketed as a “retro-hotrod.”

Fun fact: A Plymouth Prowler was sealed in a time capsule in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1998.

Image:
1997 Plymouth Prowler ad, via eBay

10/21/2026

🎬 Welcome back to Decade Dive, our 2026 series exploring the decades of pop culture and nostalgia!

This month, we’re stepping back into the 1920s for a look at the magic of silent movies — with a spooky twist for Halloween! 🎃

Long before talking pictures took over the big screen, moviegoers experienced stories through expressive acting, dramatic gestures, and music. Live musicians often accompanied the feature, adding suspense and drama.

One memorable film is The Phantom of the Opera, released in 1925 and starring Lon Chaney as the mysterious, masked Phantom. With shadowy scenes, a haunting figure, and a chilling gothic setting, it’s the perfect reminder of how silent films could send shivers down an audience’s spine!

✨ Would you have dared to watch this spooky classic at a 1920s movie theater? 👻

Address

308 W 3rd Street
Cedar Falls, IA
50613

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm
Saturday	1pm - 4pm
Sunday	1pm - 4pm

Website

http://www.cedarfallshistory.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cedar Falls Historical Society posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.