WATERLOO -- The Black's Building is a downtown jewel.

A tower of memories, the closing of the building's namesake department store nearly 30 years ago marked the end of an era.

Generations of Northeast Iowans have fond memories of trips to Black's. And soon -- with a new restaurant and lounge occupying the entire first floor and the reopening of the signature Sky Room on the eighth -- the landmark will recapture some of its former glory.

History

Many considered The James Black Co. one of the finest stores in the Midwest. A one-stop shopping destination, its slogan was: "If you can't find it at Black's, you can't find it."

The retailer anchored at East Fourth and Sycamore streets saw its heyday in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. The building features eight floors. An expansion that opened in 1957 stretched it to its present size -- covering a full city block.

Today sales floors have been renovated and sectioned off for offices. Most of the glass display counters are gone. So is an elevator operator, who asked "What floor, please?" when visitors stepped inside.

But reminders of its former elegance abound.

Rise, fall of an icon

Black's roots reach back to 1892, when Presbyterian-reared Irish immigrant James Black quit his peddling business. Waterloo boasted a population of just 7,000. The James Black Drygoods Co. was incorporated in 1902.

In 1913 the Logan House Hotel at Fourth and Sycamore was torn down, and the main portion of the current Black's Building constructed in its place, opened in 1914.

An addition was built in the late 1920s on an adjoining lot on Sycamore, and the three-story annex along East Park Avenue and Sycamore Street, likely built in the late 1800s, became part of Black's in 1957.

The clothing, flooring and home furnishings departments were a shopper's dream at Black's. For years the store included a grocery store in the basement, a beauty salon, a bakery and an ice cream plant. The top-floor restaurant, Black's Gypsy Tea Room, was famous for its cuisine. A basement luncheonette was added later.

Employees from the courthouse, which once stood at East Park Avenue and Sycamore Street, walked through an underground tunnel to eat lunch at Black's.

But business began to wane in the 1970s as shopping centers grew in popularity.

Black's tried to adapt, mimicking the malls. In 1978, Black's became associated with Minneapolis-based Donaldsons. In 1979, the Donaldsons name went on the business. A month later, the landmark Sky Room restaurant, which replaced Black's Tea Room in 1964, and the basement coffee shop, closed.

On July 3, 1981, the rest of the store closed, too.

New lease on life

Midtown Development Partnership bought the Black's building in April 1981, just before Donaldsons announced it would leave.

The building was renamed Sycamore 501 and later the Chicago Central Building, after the railroad offices located there. In 1992, it was renamed the Black's Building.

"When they talked us into doing this building, they said, 'Now, just think, if you rented it for a dollar a square foot, everything will be fine," said Donna Nelson, who owns the building with her husband, Vern Sr. "And we were young and dumb. What they forget is that it costs a lot for an empty building."

But the Nelsons wanted to preserve an important piece of Waterloo's history.

"Back then, they were tearing down a lot of stuff," said the Nelsons' son, Vern Jr., vice president of communications for Nelson Properties-Midtown Development. "We were scared this was next."

Nearly three decades later, the Nelsons are still finding new nooks and crannies as they continue to renovate the 226,000-square-foot project chunk by chunk.

"It's a huge building," Donna Nelson said. "Everything has to be tuckpointed, new roofs have to be put on, new elevators, new sprinkler systems, new everything. We have to replace all the electrical. We had to remove all those old fire escapes."

But a few special projects they've saved for last.

Black's Tea Room

People call from as far away as Texas inquiring about the Sky Room's resurrection.

The space originally known as the Tea Room opened in 1928. It was last used regularly from 1991 to 1993 as the Sky Room Comedy Club.

Couples who had rehearsal dinners or wedding receptions there want to return for anniversaries. Others are planning class reunions and proms.

"We get maybe two, three phone calls a week -- this is before we started the project -- to rent the Sky Room, just to have a party up there. As it was," Donna Nelson said. "They had a connection with it."

She knows the feeling. As a high schooler, she worked in the Tea Room.

Now Midtown is partnering with Barmuda Corp. to bring the storied room back to life and create a new generation of memories.

Reservations are already being accepted.

The project has been no easy task. Restoring antique fixtures is pricey. A single top-floor window costs $12,000.

"Things you just don't think about add up quick," Vern Nelson Jr. said.

The big windows alone have been a huge undertaking. As part of a 1964 makeover, the windows at the north and south ends of the ballroom were covered with plaster.

Today, the windows have been uncovered and most restored. They've been reinstalled with chains and original counterbalance weights in the walls.

"You can see all the way to the UNI-Dome and back out past the casino," Vern Nelson Jr. said. "The whole (Cedar) Valley."

The metal windows still are adorned by a brass plaque from Minneapolis-based Stremel Bros. Manufacturing Co., which has long since converted into an aerospace company.

"I called them up and told them we still had our guarantee," Vern Nelson Jr. said, laughing.

Matching the colors of the ballroom has also proven a challenge. Photographs are all black and white.

A smaller banquet room across the hall will be the most historically accurate room in the original 1914 side of the building, Vern Nelson Jr. said. Crews are rehabbing the floor, Gothic-style windows, and ornate molding and cornices lining the upper perimeter of the room.

Medical offices

Winding through the maze of rooms on the eighth floor, tucked in the southeast corner, is the former home of doctors and dentists.

Today the deteriorating space is in rough shape and mostly used for storage. Walls have been demolished, although ceiling outlines prove the small area once contained several rooms.

Dr. Donald Ball was the last dentist to lease a portion of the space. Remnants of X-ray, photo developing and laboratory rooms remain.

"This is one of the places where they fixed false teeth and stuff like that," Donna Nelson said, pointing to an old sink.

The Nelsons' family physician, Dr. Craig Ellyson, had the suite next door. Ellyson's father, C.W. Ellyson, signed the building's first lease, and the practice lasted more than 75 years, Vern Nelson Jr. said.

Further down the hall was a bankruptcy court.

The Nelsons hope to someday reclaim the space with their offices.

Money counting room

Black's didn't keep its cash on the sales floors.

Money from sales went into a pneumatic tube system, like drive-up banks use to transport cash between cars and tellers.

The cylindrical containers were propelled through tubes by compressed air or by vacuum to what's thought to be the third-floor money counting room, Donna Nelson said. It remains unchanged.

A security officer climbed a ladder and sat on an elevated balcony to supervise employees counting money, printing receipts and shooting tubes back to customers.

A floor-to-ceiling wall of shelves, accessible by ladder, once held sales reports.

"The buck stopped here, checks and balances," Vern Nelson Jr. said. "You didn't have to worry about your customers being involved in a holdup or something like that trying to get the cash register on the ground floor. It worked out good for them."

Each floor has a walk-in safe. One is conveniently located just outside the accounting room.

"I love this room," Donna Nelson said. "This was the hub. It brings back lots of memories. It was really a wonderful store."

Future

Eventually, the Nelsons will have touched up, refurbished and updated the whole building.

They think.

The building still yields surprises.

"We found another one downstairs," Nelson said. "We had a water leak -- couldn't figure out where it was coming from -- and there's a whole room behind these walls that has a grate going someplace. We're checking that out now."

More than 40 tenants and nearly 500 employees now call the building home, including professional offices, radio and TV stations and nonprofit groups.

The Nelsons' grandson, Vern Nelson III, vice president of development for Nelson Properties-Midtown Development, is renovating the second floor and mezzanine of the three-story addition for apartment space. And Darin Beck is expected to open a third branch of Bourbon Street restaurant and Voodoo Lounge bar on the street level.

Beck said of the nearly dozen eateries he owns in the Cedar Valley, the 30,000-square-foot Black's project is among his largest and most challenging.

"The hardest part of this one is to respect its heritage," Beck said. "Somebody could have come in here and really modernized it and spent a lot less money and taken a lot less time. This is probably one of the most, if not the most, important buildings in Black Hawk County. Historically and even today."

Before Beck came along, no one wanted to take on the entire first floor and mezzanine. The project is destined for completion by July 1.

"This is something really grand scale for the whole area, an anchor-type business for all the restaurants, all the night life," Vern Nelson Jr. said.

When the nightspot opens, the heart of Waterloo will take a fresh breath of life.

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 291-1484 or tina.hinz@wcfcourier.com.