THE HISTORY OF NIGHTMARE MANOR (the building) Nightmare Manor is a Victorian era brick structure, built approximately 1887, when only a few houses and a woolen mill were nearby.  To this day the building still has its elegant details, including brick arches and ornamental brick detail at the top of the exterior.  Inside the original floors and ceilings    were "tongue and groove" with wainscoting and carved flowers in the corners of the wooden trim. Nightmare Manor was originally constructed as a gun stock factory, when guns were so important to everyone to hunt for their food.  Soon the demand for gun stocks decreased,  and according to historic Cedar Rapids insurance maps, the building was vacant from 1889 to 1895.  However, some records   indicate that a watchman was living alone in the back section of the building.  The night watchman's area is still assessable by a steel sliding door behind Nightmare Manor's indoor cemetery. The area consists of two rooms with a brick fire place dividing them.  Remnants of an old, flowered Victorian style carpeting is still on the floor. The mysterious part of the night watchman's area is the ceiling.  The ceiling is so low a normal sized man would have to stoop to avoid hitting his head. In the early 1900's the American Manufacturing Company occupied the building.  They specialized in the manufacturing of parlor furniture and bedsteads.  To accommodate their needs they built a large woodworking shop, and since the saw mill was next to them they had a railroad spur built on the south side of the building.  Three double doors on the side of the building opened to load railroad cars. By the 1920's the building was again vacant.  For a short time in the 1930's, the Clark McDaniel Overall Factory occupied the building, and then in the 1950's the space was occupied by the  Newell Machinery Company for a several years.  In the 1960's the basement was turned into a night club, and then a scrap metal business which still exists today. Nightmare Manor is the oldest commercial building on the entire west side of Cedar Rapids.  What secrets lie behind the boarded up windows of this 120 year old building  . . .  Is the old night watchman still keeping a close eye on the building???    back