Peter Melendy wrote of Cedar Falls that "no more beautiful site for a city can be found in the West." As a businessman, railroad promoter, Mayor and friend of education, Melendy did much to fulfill that vision of his adopted community.

Melendy was instrumental in establishing the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Cedar Falls in 1869. In 1876, when the Home was no longer needed, Melendy was a prime mover in the successful effort to convert the building to use as the Iowa State Normal School, now the University of Northern Iowa.

Melendy was Mayor of Cedar Falls from 1895 to 1901. He was also an important early historian and author of Record of Cedar Falls, The Garden City of Iowa, Fifty Years 1843 - 1893.

Today, the home is a private residence.