The Edward S. Barrows House, also known as the Capital Apartments, is a historic building located just north of downtown
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 has been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places since 1976.
[ The nomination form and the National Register erroneously attribute the house to Edward S. Barrows, as all other sources give his first name as Egbert.
]
Dr. Egbert Storr Barrows
Barrows was a native of Middlebury, Vermont and he studied medicine in Frankfort, Kentucky
Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...
.[ with ] In 1856 he helped to establish the Scott County Medical Society.
Barrows had this house built around 1850. He was one of the few people in the city's early years who was able to afford the style on a large scale.stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
covered the fieldstone
Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...
exterior. It had become a derelict property by the early 1970s. The interior was filled with garbage, and the interior was vandalized. Lolita Bower spent 30 years restoring the house.[
]
Architecture
Greek Revival was the first style of architecture to have an impact in Davenport. The side gabled house features a large porch across the front. It is capped by a triangular pediment that is held up by Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
columns. The long rectangular windows on the first floor are decorated with simple, molded 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. A simple cornice is also found at the roofline. One source says that Barrow's could not find a local craftsman to create the columns for the porch so he did it himself.[ Another source says they were created in the south and they were shipped to Davenport via ]steamboat
A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
and brought to this location by teams of horses.[ The native stone was taken from a nearby riverbank.
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrows, Edward S., House
Houses completed in 1850
Greek Revival houses in Iowa
Houses in Davenport, Iowa
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa