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Davenport City Hall is the official seat of government for the city of
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. The building was constructed in 1895 and is situated on the northeast corner of the intersection of Harrison Street (
U.S. Route 61 U.S. Route 61 or U.S. Highway 61 (U.S. 61) is a major United States highway that extends between New Orleans, Louisiana and the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River and is designate ...
) and West Fourth Street in
Downtown Davenport ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...
. It was individually 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 1982 and on the
Davenport Register of Historic Properties This is a list of the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in Davenport, Iowa, United States. The historic preservation movement began in the city of Davenport in the mid-1970s with the renovation of several historic structures. A comprehensi ...
in 1993. In 2020 it was included as a
contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...
in the
Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District The Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located in the central business district of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. At th ...
.


History

Davenport started to outgrow its previous city hall, which had been built on Brady Street from 1857 to 1858. The role of city government expanded during the mayoral administration of
Henry Vollmer Henry Vollmer (July 28, 1867 – August 25, 1930) was an attorney, the mayor of Davenport, Iowa, and a Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district. Winning a special election in 1914, he served just over one year in ...
(1893-1896). Among his major achievements were several public works projects. Streets were paved in the older sections of the city and developers laid out new subdivisions around the perimeter. In 1895, in the midst of a deep national economic depression, Davenport built an ornate new City Hall. The cost was about $90,000 — an astronomical sum at that time — and the City constructed the new building without issuing any municipal bonds. Local legend has long suggested that the city retired the debt so quickly by taxing the city's brothels, but the fines levied against the brothels accounted for only between $7,000-$9,000 per year, just a portion of the financial windfall the city reaped in the mid-1890s. The bulk of the funds came from a new state law (the "mulct tax") which applied to the city's 150 illegal saloons and amounted to around $50,000 per year. This tax allowed for construction not only of City Hall, but also paved streets and a new sewer system, and from 1902–08, the city eliminated its property taxes altogether. Besides Vollmer there were two other noteworthy Davenport mayors associated with this city hall. Alfred C. Mueller served the city during two separate periods (1910-1916, 1922–24). He was responsible for initiating the city's building code, sewer planning and construction, street paving, and planning and implementing improvements to the riverfront. Dr. C.L. Barewald (1920-1922) was the city's first
Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
mayor. with Davenport's German community had become a political force by the early 20th century and they had become disenchanted with the Democratic Party's war stance that lead the country into
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the anti-German sentiments that resulted. They were also opposed to the Republican Party's support for national
prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
of alcohol so they threw their support behind the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
. Two years prior to Barewald's election as mayor two Socialists were elected as
aldermen An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...
and they were reelected in 1920. During his term as mayor, Barewald began several public works projects that put people to work and enhanced city improvements. The municipal
natatorium A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...
was built, new streets were opened and a major sewer was completed. Barewald and the other two Socialists were overwhelmingly voted out of office in 1922 because of the debts these projects and others incurred. The prohibition of alcohol was a major issue in the city of Davenport from the 1840s until national prohibition became official in 1919. The activities of the local
temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...
thrived in the 1880s and were renewed during the
Progressive Era The Progressive Era (late 1890s – late 1910s) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste and inefficiency. The main themes ended during Am ...
, especially between 1906 and 1916. Local ordinances were passed that exempted the city of Davenport from state prohibition laws and mayors, especially Ernst Claussen, stated that the citizen's personal liberties would not be violated. Debates were held in the
city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
and among other civic groups until Iowa's prohibition amendment was passed in 1916. It was reinforced by the passage of the
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of ...
in 1919. However, the illegal production and consumption of alcohol continued in the city.


Architecture

City hall was designed by Davenport architect John W. Ross, and built by Morrison Bros. Construction Company. The , four-story building is constructed of Ohio Berea sandstone in the
Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...
style. It is capped by a
hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
. The heavy stone appearance is deceptive as the weight of the building is born by a steel frame. As is common with this style, the city hall integrates corner towers, gable ends, rustic stone, and Roman arches. Three stories of windows line the front of the building. The corner tower on the west side features a cone-shaped roof and the east tower a pyramid-shaped roof. Both tower roofs rise above the main roof. Above the entrance is a large clock tower that is taller than the rest of the building. An addition was constructed on the north side in 1963 and does not correlate to the original architecture. A $2.6 million renovation of the building was completed between 1979 and 1980 and as a result the interior was reconfigured in such a way that it no longer resembles the structure's original interior. In 2012 a concrete and brick building was torn down to the north of city hall and an $818,316 renovation of the 1963 addition provided a new entrance and sandstone walls that match the original 1895 building. It also added environmentally friendly features that include
bioswale Bioswales are channels designed to concentrate and convey stormwater runoff while removing debris and pollution. Bioswales can also be beneficial in recharging groundwater. Bioswales are typically vegetated, mulched, or xeriscaped. They consi ...
s for stormwater and an electric car-charging station.


References


External links

{{Davenport Register of Historic Properties Government buildings completed in 1895 City and town halls in Iowa Buildings and structures in Davenport, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Iowa Davenport Register of Historic Properties Clock towers in Iowa