Veteran's Memorial Hall

Veterans Memorial Hall

Bricks Available for Purchase to Honor Veterans
The Memorial Hall Commission is developing Soldiers and Sailors Park at 655 Cedar Street. The park will display granite monuments and bronze plaques along the 400-foot brick walkway. The walkway will begin near the west side of the 5th Street bridge and meander through the beautifully landscaped park to the 4th Street bridge. The monuments and plaques will commemorate all wars and conflicts our service men and women have fought in.

To help pay for the development of our Soldiers and Sailors Park, the commission is selling bricks to honor anyone who has served in the military. These bricks will make up the entire walkway.

The name of the veteran, the branch of the military and the dates served will be inscribed on each brick. The location of your bricks will be in a master file inside Veterans Memorial Hall.

Bricks may be purchased for $60.00 each. Each brick will have three (3) lines of inscription with thirteen (13) letters per line.

Order forms for the bricks may be picked up at any Waterloo fire station, City Hall, Waterloo Public Library, Waterloo Center for the Arts, and the Leisure Services office or printed from the online printable form(pdf). Completed forms and checks made payable to Memorial Hall Commission may be sent to:

Contact Information:
Memorial Hall Commission
P.O. Box 1946
Waterloo, IA 50704 



Drop off orders:
Fire Headquarters
425 East Third Street
Waterloo, IA 50703
      

 
Building Location:

Memorial Hall Commission
655 Cedar Street
Waterloo, IA 50701
Phone: (319) 287-9463

 

 History of Veterans Memorial Hall

1910 -- Veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic (the Union Army in the Civil War) petitioned the county to hold an election for the establishment of a memorial hall to honor the soldiers and sailors who fought in the Civil War. The project was defeated.

1912 -- With the help of Spanish-American War veterans and the Sons of Veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic veterans tried again to establish a hall. This time the issue passed. A special building tax raised $16,000 and construction began in June 1915.

Dec. 10, 1915 -- Building is used for the first time when the Robert Anderson Post of the Grand Army of the Republic held its first meeting there.

1918-19 -- The Red Cross and Franciscan Sisters organized an additional hospital at Memorial Hall after soldiers returning from World War I brought a flu epidemic to the area, filling local hospitals.

1964 -- Building was almost demolished because the city of Waterloo wanted to acquire the property for a downtown parking area and build a new Memorial Hall near the Waterloo Recreation & Arts Center.

1966 -- Veterans Memorial Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1996 -- Black Hawk County relinquished building ownership to the city of Waterloo.

1997 -- Waterloo City Council created the Memorial Hall Commission.

Timeline Courtesy Pat Kinney, Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier May 11, 2014