Argyle Flats is a historic building located on a busy thoroughfare in

Davenport, Iowa Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a ...

, United States. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1983.

History

The structure was designed by the Davenport architectural firm of

Clausen & Burrows Frederick George "Fritz" (Friedrich Georg) Clausen (1848–1940) was a Danish-born architect who came to the United States in 1869 and founded an architectural practice in Davenport, Iowa. The firm that he founded, presently named Studio 483 Arch ...

and completed in 1900. It was typical of the apartment blocks that were built in Davenport near the turn of the 20th century. ''(pages 1-30 of PDF document)'' It was advantageously located near the expanding campus of

Palmer College of Chiropractic Palmer College of Chiropractic is a private chiropractic college with its main campus in Davenport, Iowa. It was established in 1897 by Daniel David Palmer and was the first school of chiropractic in the world. The college's name was original ...

, along a streetcar line and within walking distance of the downtown area. Palmer College now owns the building.

Architecture

Argyle Flats is a three-story structure built on a raised basement. Its basic form is compact and rectilinear. It rises three floors above an exposed basement and features an asymmetrical facade. The smooth

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

walls contrast with the rough textures of the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

s that feature Romanesque Revival corbelling and round-arched windows on the attic level in pointed

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

s that rise above the

coping Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

. with Decorative details are found at the building's main entrances and on the cornice. The cornice itself continues across the deeply recessed hyphen between the two facades, which minimizes the reality that the building is two separate blocks. Argyle Flats also features full-height, polygonal, projecting window bays. There are two entrances in the main facade that each lead to flats on one side of a bearing or party wall. The exteriors of both sides of the building are a mirror-image of the other, which is typical of the city's double houses. An adjustment is made, however, as the north section of the building sets higher on the hillside than the southern section. Elements of the

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

era are found in its picturesque facade.

Notes

Sources

* ''(pages 1-30 of PDF document)'' * ''Northwest and north-central Davenport, the Fulton Addition, and McClellan Heights (pages 30-69 of PDF document)'' {{Historic Davenport structures Residential buildings completed in 1900 Apartment buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Apartment buildings in Davenport, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa