The Renwick Building is a historic building located in 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 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 ...

since 1983, 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 ...

since 2000. (Click on "Historic Preservation Commission" and then click on "Davenport Register of Historic Properties and Local Landmarks.") 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 ...

. It is known locally for the large painted sign on the north side of the building depicting the Bix 7 Road Race.

History

The building was rebuilt in 1901 to replace the original 1893 structure that was destroyed by fire, and was commissioned by sisters Margaret and Rebecca Renwick. It is frequently (but wrongly) attributed to their brother William Renwick, who was a prosperous area industrialist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Two of the family's Davenport houses are also on the National Register of Historic Places, the Renwick House on Brady Street and the Renwick Mansion, which is a

in the St. Katherine's Historic District. The reconstructed building contained 40,000 square feet of combined retail and warehouse space and was designed for tenant Drake Furniture & Carpet Co.; it continued to house various successor furniture stores over the years. The storefront was modernized in the 1930s. with The building sat empty until 2012 when Restoration St. Louis, who also renovated the

Forrest Block The Forrest Block is a historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 2020 it was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Dow ...

and the

Hotel Blackhawk The Hotel Blackhawk is an eleven-story brick and terra cotta building located in Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is a Marriott Autograph Collection property. The hotel is connected to the north building of the RiverCenter, Davenport ...

, began a $4.5 million renovation of the building. The upper floors house 18 loft-style apartments and commercial space on the main floor.

Architecture

The Renwick Building is a steel frame and red

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 ...

commercial building. The four-story building is an outstanding example of the Chicago Commercial Style. It was designed by the Danish architect

Frederick G. Clausen 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 Archi ...

and his firm Clausen & Burrows, and constructed by Davenport contractors C.E. Osborn and John Peters. The brick

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 ...

acts as the building's skin around the steel frame, which supports the structure. This approach allowed a greater expanse of windows, which are found in this building. Decorative elements are found at the top of the building. Romanesque Revival arched windows in a tri-partite configuration line the fourth floor on the facade, and the building is topped with a heavy ornate

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 ...

References

{{Historic Davenport structures Commercial buildings completed in 1897 Commercial architecture in Iowa Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Buildings and structures in Davenport, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa Davenport Register of Historic Properties