The History of Rock Island in Post Cards Postcards were originally printed in the Rock Island Argus and Moline Dispatch, 2001 and are reprinted with permission Second Avenue is the undisputed heart of downtown Rock Island, both historically and today. It has been the destination of shoppers, tipplers, and travelers, of salesmen, milliners, attorneys and blacksmiths. Historically, the commercial area extended from 15th to 20th Streets. West of 15th Street the avenue was residential, while east of 20th Street, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy depot and railroad yards filled the block. In addition to being the heart of downtown, Second Avenue was photogenic, thanks to the bend at 17th Street which allowed a great view of the street. As a result, it was the subject of many photos such as the one reproduced for this postcard, which is postmarked 1913, and shows Second Avenue looking west from 18th Street. Most of the buildings depicted are still standing on Second Avenue, although some are hardly recognizable today. At the very center of the picture, with lots of chimneys sprouting from its roof, is the four-story Rock Island House hotel. It was built in the mid 1800s as a two-story hotel and was later enlarged upward. The current Goldman Building was constructed by actually incorporating the old Rock Island House. It is now being renovated for apartments - coming full circle in residential use. Just to the right of the Rock Island House is the predecessor building for the current bank. Farther right is the Best Building - now called the Plaza Office Building. Other prominent buildings on the block are The London (Quad City Arts home), the Fries Building, with circular windows, and the People's National Bank at the far right. The latter two buildings are also undergoing renovations for apartments. Across the street, the building at the left edge of the postcard was originally called the Robinson Building. The corner storefront was used as a bank for a long time, while storefront space farther west along the avenue had various retail uses over the years. Upstairs were offices as well as the Masonic Temple. This is an example of a building whose exterior has changed a great deal - probably in the 1920s. Be sure to observe the details in this street scene - you can probably find more than we did. Ornate Victorian style electric lights line only the right (north) side of the street. Why? Noticeably missing, compared to earlier downtown photos, are tall power poles, with as many as a dozen crosspieces. Whether they were really removed or simply painted out of the original photo is unknown. There are trolley tracks in the street, and a trolley can be seen in the background. This is the only indication of other than pedestrian travel. Apparently there was no traffic problem in 1913 - it would be difficult to paint autos or buggies out of the picture. Of course now we have the pedestrian plaza where the street once was. See the awnings at storefront level on the south-facing buildings as well as a few more, some retracted, on higher windows. Regulating sun inside was critical in controlling interior temperatures and also kept window displays from fading. Our postcard was published by the Davenport Postcard and Novelty Company in Davenport and copyrighted by A. R. Bawden. Thanks to Mike Bawden, President of Brand Central Station in Riverdale, we learned some history of this postcard and his family. Mike's grandfather, Ray, along with his two brothers Harry and Al (A.R.), ran a cigar store near Second and Brady in Davenport. The store, which later moved to a location on 3rd Street across from the Orpheum (now Adler) Theatre began selling postcards and magazines as well as tobacco. The postcards proved very popular - so popular that the Bawdens began to photograph and print their own postcards. Photos, probably taken by Harry, were of local scenes such as this one, as well as of circus freaks, brought here for chiropractic research and treatment by B. J. Palmer. The small printing company continued to expand over the years into a huge well known establishment - Bawden Bros. The cigar store? Only a Bawden family memory. Back to the Postcard Index Page Black Hawk Lounge at Black Hawk State Park For as long as anyone remembers - and even before - Black Hawk State Historic Site has held a unique place in our regional history. Its location at the crest of the cliff overlooking the Rock River valley and the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers was the center of the Sauk and Mesquakie Indians' territory around 1800. By 1832, our Indian predecessors were completely ejected by both deception and force, and settlers of European descent took over their lands. Even those early settlers recognized the special quality and beauty of this place. In 1882, Bailey Davenport formalized that attraction by making it a destination for his street railway. He developed the land as an amusement park and called it the Watch Tower Park. We will tell you more about the amusement park at another time, with another postcard. With the park came the need for shelter. Initially there was a large open pavilion, usable only during warm weather. In 1892, the first year-round building, called an inn, was built. It looked like a towered Queen Anne house surrounded by two levels of porches and held a dining room, cafe, ice cream parlor and ballroom. Unfortunately, it burned only four years later. The second inn fared a bit better. It was Colonial Revival in style with even larger encircling porches, but it too burned, in 1916. The third inn was a Classical Revival building, with a two-story portico overlooking the river and two levels of open porches all around. As the amusement park patronage declined in the 1920s, there was concern for the future of this historic site. Prominent local resident and philanthropist John Hauberg led the campaign to designate it as a state park. Seventy-five years ago, in 1927, his goal was achieved. The 208 acres surrounding the old Watch Tower was changed to Black Hawk State Park, in honor of its most prominent resident (whom we had previously banished from this place). The amusement park rides and concessions were quickly demolished, but the third inn remained until 1936, when it was replaced with yet another building, the one on today's postcard. In the midst of the 1930s, the entire country was in an economic recession. As part of President Roosevelt's "New Deal," the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was established to create work and a modest income for the unemployed. In 1933, the CCC arrived at Black Hawk Park. In exchange for room and board and a few dollars a month, the two hundred men who lived in a camp here, built much of the rustic lodge and created the landscape we see today. The lodge was designed by state architect Joseph Booton, who also designed the CCC-built lodges at Starved Rock, Pere Marquette, and Giant City State Parks. It was built in stages - wings to the east and west were constructed first, around the existing inn. Then the old inn was demolished so the room shown on the postcard could complete the structure. The postcard, published in 1942, shows the main lounge - sometimes called the dining room - of our lodge. Nearly all its surfaces - walls, floors, and ceilings are wood. The large windows and doors to the right of our picture lead to a balcony overlooking the woods to the north - perhaps commemorating those earlier porches on the inns. The portrait hanging on that wall looks like John Hauberg, an appropriate honor for the man who was instrumental in establishment of the park and who later donated most of the artifacts in the adjacent museum. The postcard view, which looks toward the west end of the lounge, shows one of the native limestone fireplaces and oil-on-canvas murals. The opposite east end of the room has a similar fireplace and mural. The murals are the work of Otto Hake, an artist for the Work Progress Administration (another Roosevelt New Deal program). Hake, who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was a well-known muralist, especially in the Chicago area. According to a WPA murals website, Hake was not identified as the artist for many years, possibly because the outer perimeters of these murals, which were intended for a different building, were trimmed to fit here. The mural we see on the postcard is named "Chief Black Hawk - Winter Round House" and is 18' x 8'6". The other mural is entitled "Sauk and Fox Indians - Summer Long House" and is 15' x 18'6". Partially blocking our view of the mural in the postcard is one of the massive peeled logs used to support the roof trusses. The trusses are made of squared off timbers interlaced in a complex design with iron straps anchoring them firmly to their peeled log support. While the engineering design may be complicated, it's easy to visualize how the truss support system works. Visit the lodge and look at one of the trusses. Then imagine one piece missing. How would the adjacent pieces tend to move? The analysis can be fun for kids, too. The park was made a state historic site in 1987 with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as the administrator. Although extensive renovations, including a replication of the original tile roof, have recently begun, the lodge and two museums - the John Hauberg Indian Museum and the CCC museum -- remain open to the public during construction. Back to the Postcard Index Page Garnsey Square We think of Rock Island as a city of parks, especially large rambling parks. But a century ago, parks and public spaces tended to be much smaller and more formal. Today's postcard, from around 1910, depicts such a park in its heyday. It is Garnsey Square which included the entire block between Fifth and Sixth Streets and Third and Fourth Avenues. The site is now under the Rock Island Expressway. Garnsey Square started life as Franklin Square, which is shown on maps as early as 1855. However although dedicated as a public space, Franklin Square wasn't really a park. Instead, it was unimproved land that was used as a source of gravel, providing material for public improvements. Rather than a deep excavated gravel pit, the gravel was probably on the surface, deposited during high water times. In 1890, a group of citizens formed the West End Improvement Association, with the intent of improving Franklin Square into a landscaped public space. First they renamed the land as Garnsey Square, in honor of Daniel G. Garnsey (sometimes called Gurnsey). Garnsey was a son of pioneer settlers here who, many years earlier, had laid out the addition where the square was located. Moreover he had donated his interest in the square to the city. The Improvement Association quickly raised enough money to remove a "heavy" grove of locust trees, excavate several feet of gravel deposit, and refill the area with soil. Then they proceeded to make other improvements to the park, many of which were donated. By 1892, it was reported that Contractor Nelson was laying tile crosswalks in Garnsey Park. These sidewalks went diagonally from each corner to the center, where contractor Charles Larkin was donating his labor to build a large round basin for the fountain, which would be installed later. The basin, surrounded by an ornate iron fence, was similar to that already built in Spencer Square, but the fountain was different. The Garnsey Square fountain, shown in the center of our postcard, was a tall and elegant structure with four tiers of cascading water. What a sound the falling water must have produced as if flowed from one level to another! The diagonal sidewalks within the square created four distinct triangular zones. In the west triangle was the bandstand, visible at the left on our postcard. This also indicates the postcard view of the square is looking to the northeast. The east triangle held a drinking fountain, and the north and south triangles had vases and ornaments. This elegant square was truly an oasis in the urban landscape. Although Rock Island did have a park department at the turn of the century, the concept of publicly maintained places was rather new to this area. It didn't take long to catch on, though, and by 1925, it was reported that Rock Island had two large parks - Longview and Lincoln - as well as several smaller ones -- Spencer, Garnsey, Douglas, Denkmann, Reservoir - and a municipal tourist camp as well, located west of 9th Street at 47th Avenue. Garnsey Park graced the west end of Rock Island until 1960, when 143 parcels of land, most with buildings, were cleared in the name of urban renewal and to build a new expressway. Ironically, the project was called the Garnsey Square Urban Renewal Project. It was reported that Garnsey Square's four-tier fountain was removed to Longview Park. Alas, the water is turned off in all of our historic fountains -- they are now dry as a bone! Back to the Postcard Index Page The Mill Store The Mill Store, featured on today's postcard, notes that it contains drygoods, shoe and grocery departments. In city directories, the Mill Store also indicated that it sold hardware here on the southeast of Third Street and Fourth Avenue. All these items were offered in a space that was 25 feet wide and 125 feet long. The Mill Store operated under that name between the 1890s and the 1940s. However it is believed that the business existed even earlier, operating as a Weyerhauser and Denkmann company store. The W & D Sawmill was only two blocks away. Much later in its retail life, the Mill Store evolved into a neighborhood grocery store, eliminating the drygoods, shoes, and hardware. After the grocery business closed in 1944, the building was used for other purposes, from a rug cleaner and auto repair shop, to a heating and airconditioning business. In the 1960s the old store was demolished. Although we don't have a picture of its exterior, it's easy to imagine what it looked like. From fire insurance maps, we know that was a two story frame building with an ice house in back. The upstairs was an apartment usually occupied by the store owner, as was common in the era. The front of the building probably had a gable roof, which may have been enhanced by a more ostentatious false front. Storefront windows would have been as large as practical - not so much for display as for interior light. Although this part of Rock Island is now mostly industrial open space, at one time it was a very real, very interesting neighborhood. As Rock Island grew below the bluffs, industrial, business, and residential uses easily coexisted. As noted earlier, the big sawmill was only two blocks west of the Mill Store. F.C. A. Denkmann's elegant house was one block west. To the east was Garnsey Square park. The manufacturing plants of Rock Island Stove Company and Rock Island Plow Company were within easy walking distance. There was even a horseradish canning plant nearby. And around it all were homes. But it is the interior of this store as we see it on our postcard that is most intriguing today. Imagine a store not much larger than the deli department of a modern grocery store that is able to stock just about everything a family would need. We can see that light from the front windows, and perhaps smaller windows high on the side wall, were supplemented by large oil or gas lights suspended from the embossed tin.ceiling. There are small iron and wood stools in front of some of the display cases and counters. Behind the display cases are racks of full shelves. At the upper right, men's shirts are displayed in an alcove framed by fancy wooden latticework. There is another latticed cupboard on the back wall of the store as well. Shoes are arrayed at the left of the aisle near the center of our postcard. In front of the shoes are what look like bolts of cloth for economical homemakers to sew their family's garments. Although we don't see evidence of the groceries, they were probably located at the far back conveniently near the ice house. And, if the original proprietors used modern marketing techniques, it would have been good for business if patrons walked past the "luxury" drygoods department to get to the "essential" groceries. There is no physical remnant of the Mill Store or even its neighborhood today. But there is a remaining link to this historic era in Rock Island. William Thoms operated the Mill Store with the assistance of his son Raymond between 1903 and 1918. The Mill Store must have provided excellent experience for young Raymond. He went on to help found the "homegrown" company that we know as the Thoms-Proestler Company, an enduring business in our community. Back to the Postcard Index Page