About

The Black Hawk Hotel is the second longest continuously operating hotel in the country and has undergone significant renovation and renaming since the dawn of Cedar Falls’ history in the early 1850’s. First known as The Winslow House (1853), the hotel began as a stagecoach hotel a half block from the town’s first mill race on the Cedar River.

In 1858, the hotel was renamed The Western and the fourth floor was constructed. The Western served the community through the days of the Civil War.

In the 1860’s, the hotel became The Carter House and was a successful hotel until it was destroyed by fire in the late 1870’s. The building was replaced by the four-story Second Empire architecture that stands today and reopened as The Davis House. By 1885, the ownership of the hotel was in the hands of the Burr family and it was renamed The Burr’s Hotel, which the family operated until the early 1900’s.

In 1914, a group of investors hired Waterloo architect John Ralston to redesign the old structure into what it is today — a mix of Second Empire and Mission-style architecture — and The Black Hawk Hotel was born.

The Black Hawk Hotel is now listed in the National Historic Register of Historic Places and was awarded the 2003 Redevelopment Investor Award among numerous other accolades and awards since that time.