History of Davenport, Iowa
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Since the history of Davenport, Iowa began in 1832, Davenport has grown to a city of nearly 100,000 residents. The first settlers of Davenport were mostly Germans. Davenport experienced an economic and building boom in the 1920s and early 1930s. The Capitol Theatre, the baseball stadium, the Kahl Building, the Parker Building, and the Blackhawk Hotel are a few of the buildings built during this time period that are still standing. The Great Depression brought economic tough times to the city. The inclusion of new factories in the 1940s and 1950s helped turn the economy around after World War II. Davenport was hard once again with the farm crisis of the 1980s, when the The Caterpillar Plant closed costing 35,000 jobs. The city was rejuvenated once again in the 1990s and present by renovations and building additions.
Davenport was part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1814, during the War of 1812 the British military, along with the Saux and Fox Indian tribes fought against the Americans near Davenport. In August, Major Zachary Taylor, later President, fought a battle east of what is now Credit Island Park, in Davenport.[1] An outpost was set up at Fort Armstrong and George Davenport and Antonie LeClaire were stationed there.
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[edit] Early 19th century
In 1832, Chief Keokuk and General Winfield Scott signed a treaty to end the Black Hawk War.[2] Antoine LeClaire, who was part French and part Pottawattamie, served as translator. A generous portion of land was gifted by Chief Keokuk to Marguerite LeClaire, Antoine's wife, as she was the granddaughter of a Sac chief.[2] Keokuk stipulated that Antoine build their home on the exact spot where the treaty was signed or forfeit the land. Antoine did so, finishing the Treaty House in the spring of 1833. Davenport was established in 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and named after his good friend Colonel George Davenport.[1]
Colonel Davenport arrived in 1816 with the establishment of Fort Armstrong. He acted as a "sutler," or supplier, for the army's Fort Armstrong. Fort Armstrong was located on the northwestern tip of Arsenal Island with the purpose of monitoring fur trade traffic in the area and keeping the peace between local Native American tribes. He contributed to the organization and mapping out of the community, now known as the Quad Cities. He also aided in establishing plans for the first railroad bridge to cross the Mississippi.
[edit] County seat dilemma
In 1837, shortly after Scott County was formed Davenport, and rival neighbor Rockingham both campaigned to become the county seat. As stated by the Iowa Territory, the city with the most votes at the February 1838 election, would become the county seat.[1] On the eve of the election, Davenporters secured the temporary service of Dubuque laborers so that they could vote in the election. Davenport won the election. Rockingham supporters however, did not like this. They protested the elections to the territorial Governor. The Governor of the territory refused to certify the results of the election. A second election was scheduled for the following August. To avoid another import of voters, the Governor set a sixty day residency requirement. Both cities proved to be corrupt as the second election drew near. Davenport, was again the victor, by only two votes.[1] A third election was set by the Territorial Legislature for the summer of 1840. As the August election drew nearer, Rockinghamers grew tired of the county seat cause. Antoine LeClaire's $3,000 contribution, and the efforts of other Davenporters were difficult to challenge. Davenport easily won the third election. To ensure the question of county seat would not arise again, Davenport built the first county courthouse.[1]
[edit] Mid-Late 19th century
On July 4, 1845, Colonel Davenport was assaulted in his home by several men who though he had a fortune in his safe. Beaten and left for dead, he survived long enough to give a full description of the criminals before he died that night.[3]
In the 1850s, Germans made up Davenport's largest settlement group.[1] By 1858, more than one-fifth of Davenport's nearly 11,000 residence were Germans.[1] The growing city had a need for a railroad bridge to cross into Illinois. Before a bridge was built, privately owned ferryboats transported passengers, wagons, and cargo across the Mississippi River. In 1856, the first railroad bridge built across the Mississippi River connected Davenport and Rock Island, IL. It was built by the Rock Island Railroad.[4] Steamboaters saw nationwide railroads as a threat to their business. On May 6, 1856, just weeks after it was completed, a steamboater crashed the Effie Afton steamboat into the bridge. The owner of the Effie Afton, John Hurd, filed a lawsuit against The Rock Island Railroad Company. The Rock Island Railroad Company selected Abraham Lincoln as their trial lawyer.[4]
Just before the start of the Civil War, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood declared Davenport to be Iowa's first military headquarters.[1] Five camps were set up in Davenport during the war. Camp McClellan was the largest camp, on the eastern edge of the city. Thousands of Iowa troops trained here.[1] Camp McClellan contained twenty wooden barracks, a stockade building, headquarters buildings, and hospitals. A Davenport neighborhood, McClellan Heights is named after the camp.
Hundreds of Iowa children were left homeless by the Civil War. On November 16, 1865, the "Iowa Soldier's Orphans' Home" (renamed the Annie Wittenmyer Home in 1949) was opened.[1] The first 150 children arrived from Keokuk, Iowa. Starting in 1876, children from broken homes as well as orphans from all of Iowas ninety-nine counties. The home was a self-contained community, containing residences, a school, tailor shop, and a chapel.[1] The home had three separate fires during its course. On November 9, 1887, at three o’clock in the morning, the third fire started. The building burnt to the ground. The next day’s Morning Democrat Gazette pointed out that if home was not set up with several different buildings as houses, all 350 children at the time would have been homeless, and some may have not survived the fire.[1] After 110 years of service, the home closed in 1975. It is estimated that well over 12,000 children were helped by the Home during its operation. [5]
In 1872, Phebe Sudlow was appointed principal of Davenport High School. She was the first female principal in the United States. [6] On June 19, 1874, Phebe Sudlow was then unanimously voted to the position of Superintendent of Davenport Schools. She was also the first woman in United States history to be a public school superintendent.[6]
In 1895, the Davenport City Hall was constructed, at a price of $100,000.[1] Architectural journals poked fun of city leaders, due to the small amount budgeted for the project.
In 1897, Palmer College of Chiropractic was founded by Daniel David Palmer. It is the first chiropractic school in the world.
[edit] Early 20th century
On July 25, 1901, a large fire erupted on Davenport's east side. The fire burnt itself out late in the day, instead of being brought under control. Eight blocks of buildings were destroyed causing one million dollars of damage. No lives were lost during the fire.
The 1920s brought an economic and building boom. The city's skyline began to form, with the construction of commercial buildings like the Kahl Building, the Parker Building, and the Capitol Theatre. Large national department stores also arrived downtown, Montgomery Wards, Sears and J.C. Penney.[7]
The Blackhawk Hotel was built in downtown in 1915. The original hotel was seven stories. Four floors were added in the 1920's, giving a total of 400 rooms. The Blackhawk has been host to several high-profile people including Carl Sandburg, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Jack Dempsey.[1] The hotel named rooms 412-414 the "Nixon Suite". Big bands such as Guy Lombardo and Stan Kenton played at the Blackhawk on many occasions.[1]
On Christmas day in 1920, 10,000 people turned out to see the opening of Davenport's new, elegant theater, the Capitol. The Capitol Theatre featured a classical interior, an orchestra pit and a full-scale theater organ.[1] The third balcony extended five full stories. The theater's 2,000 seats were regularly filed.
On February 18, 1922, WOC Radio made its local broadcasting debut. It is the second licensed station on the air.[8] In 1933, WOC hired future President Ronald Regan as a staff announcer.[8]
In 1930, efforts began to turn a city dump into a landmark. The project was to construct a municipal stadium (now called Modern Woodmen Park). The project was financed by bonds ,and cost more than $150,000.[1] Special features included reserved seats, box seats, and night lighting. The stadium was home to the Saint Ambrose University football games, and boxing matches. Today the stadium is home to the Quad Cities River Bandits baseball team.
By 1932, thousands of Davenporters were on public relief due to the Great Depression. A shantytown grew in the west end of the city along the Mississippi River. Sickness, hunger, and unsanitary living conditions plagued the area. Through county and municipal government, the federal Civil Works Administration gave employment to thousands of men. They worked to extend the seawall along the riverfront. More than 200 jobs were created by the construction of Lock and Dam 15 project, in 1932.[1] Hundreds of state employees worked on completing the Kimberly Road Outerbelt Bypass in 1936.
[edit] Mid-Late 20th century
In 1946 Alcoa decided to build a new rolling mill east of Davenport in Riverdale, Iowa. With the construction, concerns about postwar unemployment ended. Retailing in Davenport was changed by the inclusion of the automobile into mainstream America. In the late 1940's, parking meters were installed in downtown to encourage rotation of space between different users. Soon there were more cars then the street parking spaces could handle.[1] In 1953, the first multi-story ramp was completed in the state, on the corner of Fifth Street and Brady Street. The large variety of shops kept downtown a retail leader even after the opening of the Village Shopping Center in 1956. Another first for Iowa.[1]
Davenport experienced a post-war boom after World War II.[7] Oscar Mayer, Ralston Purina, and other companies all built plants in west Davenport. 1956 brought the Interstate highway network to Davenport. Local transportation planning took on a new design after World War II also. Paved state and federal highways built to and through Davenport in the 1930's were expanded to handle new truck shipping patterns.[1] In 1960 a second span was constructed to help with the increased traffic on the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge.
By 1959, more than 1,000 homes a year were being constructed.[7] By the late 1970s, the good times were over for both downtown and local businesses and industries. The farm crisis of the 1980s hit Davenport and the rest of the Quad Cities hard. 35,000 workers lost their jobs through the entire Quad Cities area.[7] The Caterpillar Plant on the cities north side closed, causing many jobs to be lost.
In the late 1970's, Davenport city leaders, began plans to construct a civic center in downtown.[1] The center would become a focus for the revitalization of downtown's sagging property values. In December 1983, following sixteen months of construction, the civic center was opened. After a public naming contest, it was named the RiverCenter a short time later. The adjacent Orpehum Theatre was renamed the "Adler Theater" and was placed under the management of the RiverCenter.
The 1990s brought the beginnings of a turnaround for the city.[7] Many renovations and building additions have occurred to revitalize downtown. Including fixing up Modern Woodmen Park, building the Skybridge, and the Figge Art Museum, along with many other projects.
Davenport (along with neighboring Rock Island, Illinois) won the "2007 City Livability Award" in the small-city category from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Tom Cochran, Executive Director of the Conference, stated that the award "gives the Conference a chance to highlight mayoral leadership in making urban areas safer, cleaner and more livable."[9] The award acknowledges achievements from the "RiverVision" plan of Davenport and Rock Island; "RiverVision is a bi-state collaboration between Davenport and Rock Island to transform the Mississippi River’s edge into one of the most compelling waterfronts in the nation."[10]
[edit] List of mayors of Davenport
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Svendsen, Marlys (1985). Davenport A Pictorial History. G. Bradley Publishing, INC.. ISBN 0-940286-05-X.
- ^ a b Davenport History. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ Colonel Davenport Davenport History. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ a b Davenport History Davenport History. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ The Annie Wittenmyer Home The Annie Wittenmyer Home. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2007-01-18.
- ^ a b Phebe Sudlow History. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ a b c d e Davenport History 3. Quad Cities Online. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
- ^ a b Davenport History 2. Quad City Memory. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
- ^ 2007 City Livability Award Winnders Announced (PDF). The United States Conferences of Mayors. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
- ^ Davenport & Rock Island: America's Most Livable Small Cities. City of Davenport, Iowa. Retrieved on 2008-01-19.
