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The lot at 2501 Williams Blvd. SW is mostly empty. It has been since 2007, when crews demolished the then-46-year-old Holiday Inn complex that stood on the site.

In June 1960, construction of the new Holiday Inn was announced. It was described as “one of the two largest motor hotels in Iowa.” The other one opened June 19, 1960, in Des Moines.

The eight-year-old Holiday Inns of America Corp. owned 30 hotels in the United States in 1960 and licensed 120 more.

Cedar Rapids’ million-dollar, fireproof, two-story “motor hotel” with 109 units would be built on a 4.5-acre site at the west edge of Cedar Rapids starting in mid-July 1960. Entrances were planned for both the boulevard and Highway 30.

Future customers could expect a coffee shop, restaurant, banquet and meeting rooms, a heated pool, and parking for 350 cars.

Robert Brock and Ed Linquist of Topeka, Kan., were the franchise operators. Nate and Ed Cohn, acting as Williams Corp., were the owners. Rinderknecht Construction Co. of Cedar Rapids poured footings for the hotel in August.

“The inn for Cedar Rapids is identical to all other Holiday Inns being constructed today. Equipment and décor meet the same standards,” according to a Gazette story. By opening date, the Cedar Rapids property was owned by Four Corners, Inc., a group of 10 local businessmen.

Although it had been in business since mid-May 1961, the formal opening for the motel was June 11, when amenities, like the heated pool and the landscaping, were ready.

The new motel faced a major problem almost immediately when the Chandler Hill water reservoir that served southwest Cedar Rapids went dry, resulting in low water pressure. Air conditioning at the Holiday Inn had to be shut off. A strange side effect of the low pressure was bad-tasting water coming through the pipes. That was finally remedied by February 1962, when a new pipe across the Cedar was completed and when four new wells were added to the water system by May.

Over its first decades, the Holiday Inn became a popular place for celebrations, gatherings and business meetings as well as a place to stay.

‘Holidome’

In April 1980, a $1 million indoor recreation center called a “Holidome” was built over the motel’s U-shaped courtyard. Construction crews removed the original pool, installed a new one in the northeast corner of the courtyard, and added a shuffleboard court, putting green, ping pong and pool table area and saunas.

The remodel also included doubling the size of the cocktail lounge and adding a new meeting room.

When that was done, the company began to refurbish each of 184 sleeping rooms.

A grand opening of the recreation center Nov. 16, 1980, featured Kansas City Royals second baseman Frank White.

Nothing lasts forever

The popularity of the Holiday Inn and Holidome waned.

In 1996, the Holiday Inn corporation opened a Holiday Inn Express on Collins Road NE. The next year, after 34 years, the original inn was sold to IDM Management in January 1997 and became the Days Inn-Conference Center. The Greenery restaurant was renamed the Courtyard Café. Jupiter Lounge became Torch Stop in honor of the 1996 Olympics torch run through Cedar Rapids.

For a short time in 1999-2000, the motel was identified as the Cedar Rapids Inn and Conference Center but was closed abruptly in 2000 and was soon boarded up.

Rumors circulated that it might become a water park and resort. Instead, it seemed to draw vandals, criminals and drug dealers. Neighbors complained of the eyesore.

The property was offered for bids at a real estate auction in July 2005.

An attendee at the auction said “much of the electrical wiring and plumbing has been removed,” and the prospect of reopening the motel would be costly. The mortgage owner, First National Bank of Cold Spring, Minn., rejected a bid of $462,000 at the auction.

Scott Olson of Skogman Realty Commercial said in June 2006 that a local investment group paid more than $750,000 for the property along with back taxes.

The old motel was supposed to be demolished in summer 2006.

“While some of the land has been spoken for by neighboring property owners, the remaining land is expected to be adequate for 2 to 4 commercial lots,” The Gazette reported.

Bud Vandersee of Vandersee Backhoe Services had to extend his demolition permits a couple of times after that, when asbestos was discovered in the building -- and when in June 2007 workers found reinforced steel in the walls which slowed their progress.

In October, arsonists set the motel on fire, costing Vandersee $60,000 because he had already sold some of the wood that was burned. A few weeks later, firefighters were called again to extinguish piles of burning carpet in the pool area.

Finally, the demolition of the 46-year-old complex was completed at the end of August 2007.