Old Main, Augustana College is an historic building located in

Rock Island, Illinois Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Rock Island Arsenal, Arsenal Island. The popul ...

, United States. It was built between 1884 and 1893 on the campus of Augustana College, and 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 1975.

History

Augustana College was established in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1860 to educate Swedish immigrants by the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, now part of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant Lutheran church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. , it has approxim ...

. The school moved to

Paxton, Illinois Paxton is a city in Ford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,473 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ford County. History The town was initially named Prairie City in the late 1840s, then Prospect City by an Illino ...

in 1863 and then to Rock Island in 1875. Old Main was constructed from 1884-1893. It was dedicated as Memorial Hall in 1889 although it was still incomplete. The building's design was based on a similar building at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, which was the alma mater of many of the college's early faculty. The dome, however, was not part of the building's original design. The building in Uppsala features a

crenelated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interv ...

octagon-shaped tower. A dome was believed to be more American, and so it was chosen to top the building. The original cost to build the building is estimated at $75,000. A third of the money was donated by a local industrialist, Philander Lathrop Cable. Cable Hall, on the second floor of the building, was restored to look like a 19th-century classroom. A $13 million renovation of the building was begun in July 2010. The stone on the building's exterior was washed and tuck pointed, and the old windows were replaced. The building's dome, which was painted metal, was covered in a copper that has a pre-treated patina to give a weathered, bluish-green look.

Architecture

The

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

-style building was designed by L.G. Hallberg of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

E.S. Hammatt Edward Hammatt (September 8, 1856 – August 24, 1907) was an architect in the United States. He designed several notable buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Biography Edward Seymour Hammatt was born in ...

of Davenport. A large central

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

with four two-story

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...

dominate in main

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

of the building over the main entrance. Smaller pediments flank the ends of the façade and help to give the structure a balanced appearance. The exterior walls feature heavy textured stone on the ground level and smooth masonry walls on the second and third levels of the building. The buff-colored dolomite limestone was quarried near

LeClaire, Iowa LeClaire is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States. The population was 4,710 in 2020, a 65.4% increase from 2,847 in 2000, making it one of the fastest-growing communities in the Quad Cities. LeClaire is considered a suburb and part of the ...

. It is the same quarry that produced the stone blocks that were used to build the shops on nearby

Rock Island Arsenal The Rock Island Arsenal comprises , located on Arsenal Island, originally known as Rock Island, on the Mississippi River between the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. It lies within the state of Illinois. Rock Island ...

. The dome on top of the building is based on 16th-century Italian designs.

References

{{NRHP in Rock Island County, Illinois School buildings completed in 1893 Renaissance Revival architecture in Illinois Buildings and structures in Rock Island, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Rock Island County, Illinois University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois University and college administration buildings in the United States