The Kahl Building is an historic building located in

Downtown ''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 distric ...

Davenport, Iowa, 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 artist ...

in 1983. 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 distric ...

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 ...

. The building also includes the Capitol Theatre.

Kahl Building

The Kahl Building is ten stories tall and rises above the ground. It was designed by Davenport architect Arthur Ebeling who used as inspiration the works of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

architects William Holabird,

John Root John Wellborn Root (January 10, 1850 – January 15, 1891) was an American architect who was based in Chicago with Daniel Burnham. He was one of the founders of the Chicago School style. Two of his buildings have been designated a National H ...

and

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

. In fact Sullivan's Wainwright Building in St. Louis is considered a model after which the Kahl Building was designed. Sullivan's influence can be seen in the more elaborate ornamentation on the lower floors while the upper floors are relatively plain. with Their decoration is confined to recessed

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

panels. The building is capped with a staccato pairing of round-arch windows and an elaborate

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 ...

. In 1920, the building was constructed by Henry Kahl and Walsh-Kahl Construction for $1.5 million. It was considered high-quality office space, which was in demand at the time, and was fully leased before construction was complete. The building is composed of steel frame construction with stone and decorative

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracot ...

facing materials. The building's sense of height is highlighted by recessing the

panels between the floors and behind the vertical piers. It is considered an "exceptional example of the influence of the Chicago School on commercial architecture." Historically, the building has contained 184 office suites, several retail shops, a restaurant, and the Capital Theater. The lobby walls were faced with

Alabama marble Sylacauga marble, also commonly known as Alabama marble, is a marble that is found in a belt running through Talladega County, Alabama. It is prized for its pure white color and its crystalline structure. The stone is named after the town of Sylac ...

that is swirled in pinks, and it featured bronze and copper doors. In 1994 the family of Davenport Banker V.O. Figge and his wife Elizabeth, who was Henry Kahl's daughter, donated the building to the

Scott Community College Scott Community College is a community college in Riverdale, Iowa, near Bettendorf,

Foundation, which used it for academic purposes. The

Eastern Iowa Community College District The Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) includes three community colleges stretched along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Iowa. Eastern Iowa Community Colleges consists of the Iowa counties of Clinton, Muscatine, and Scott. The E ...

announced in August 2014 their intention to leave the Kahl Building and relocate to a new campus in the former First Federal Savings and Loan Association Building and First Midwest Bank building on West Third Street between Brady and Main streets. The new college campus was opened in January 2018, and the Kahl Building was sold to Jim Bergman of JNB Capitol Building for $2 million in June. A $20 million project will renovate the Kahl Building into 70 market-rate apartments.

Capitol Theatre

Capitol Theater marquee - Davenport, Iowa

The Capitol Theatre opened on December 25, 1920. Builder Henry C. Kahl wanted to provide a 2,500-seat, palace-type theater. Kahl planned a luxurious movie theater larger than any in Davenport or

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

. When opened, the theater boasted grand pianos, gold leaf decoration, and several chandeliers. Its interior was designed by the Chicago firm of Rapp & Rapp. The original

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''rank ...

was built by the M. P. Moller Pipe Organ Company. It was replaced by a Wicks pipe organ for $30,000 and contains 700 pipes. The organ received a $75,000 restoration in 2000, and it is now the only Wicks theater organ that remains in its original home. In 1925, a 7-story stage house and stage expansion were constructed. It was designed by the Davenport architectural firm of

Clausen & Kruse 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 ...

. Priester Construction Company of Davenport was the general contractor. The theater joined the Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) circuit in 1927. It discontinued operating as a working movie theater in 1977 and was the last of the city's movie palaces in operation at the time. A variety of performers have performed on its stage including

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...

shows. It hosted the Winter Dance Party in 1959 that included

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

, the

Big Bopper Jiles Perry "J.P." Richardson Jr. (October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959), known as The Big Bopper, was an American singer, songwriter and disc jockey. His best-known compositions include " Chantilly Lace" and " White Lightning", the latter of w ...

, and Ritchie Valens before their deaths five days later in an airplane crash outside of Clear Lake, Iowa. The Capitol currently has a capacity of 2,000 seats but is no longer in operation. The Kahl Building's renovation includes the Capitol Theatre whose planned use will be for small concerts, plays, comedians, and movies.

References

{{Historic Davenport structures, state=collapsed Office buildings completed in 1920 Buildings and structures in Davenport, Iowa Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa Skyscraper office buildings in Iowa Skyscrapers in Iowa Chicago school architecture in Iowa 1920 establishments in Iowa