920 13th Avenue
Exterior Residential Paint
Built: c. 1890

This Victorian home at 920 13th Avenue is approximately 113 years old. The home's first entry in the Moline city directories and the creation of the surrounding neighborhood was around 1890. This Queen Anne in the Free Classic Style with a bit of Colonial Revival influence in some of the detailing, remains solid and beautiful with very little change since its original construction. Such a mix of two common styles is appropriate for the estimated age of the structure.

City directories record the first resident in the home as Peter Broman. He lived here with his wife and family for 39 years until his death in 1929. His widow continued in residency until 1931. Peter was a carpenter by trade, working first for the Moline Plow Company and later for Deere & Company. At the time of Peter's death, his widow began the practice of taking on boarders which continued for approximately 25 years during which the structure housed up to 3 families at any one time. Finally, John B. Sweeney stabilized the home in 1958, turning it back into a single-family residence while he worked as Deputy Chief at the Rock Island Arsenal. In 1968, Lloyd Bolkcom, a top manager at WQAD-TV in Moline, and his wife Nancy moved in and raised their large family in the house for 24 years until the current owners, John & Jill Roche, purchased it in 1993.

The hipped roof features both front & rear hipped, centered dormers and non-decorative soffits. Both east and west elevations have three-sided bays and slightly flared skirts, but in classic Queen Anne style are asymmetric. Victorian-styled brackets are tucked in both the east & west story bays adding a bit of gingerbread for the passers-by. A rounded, full-width wrap around porch greets visitors where a beautiful leaded glass window is present in the center of the first floor bay window.

The 4 color paint scheme completed by the Roches follows closely to the colors the Bolkcom family painted the house in 1990. Gray was applied to the thin wooden clapboard siding as well as the tongue & groove porch flooring. Colonial Red appears on the shutters, porch trim, balustrade caps, and the base & top of the round porch columns. Hunter Green accents the porch columns and was used on the wooden headboard porch ceiling. White appears on the 2nd story band trim, porch cornice, soffit, balustrade, window/door casings and porch skirt. The exterior has seen few changes over the years except the large great room and exterior deck added to the rear of the house by Lloyd Bolkcom and his sons while they lived in the home.

1111 14th Avenue
Exterior Residential Paint
Built: c. 1900

This National Folk style 2-story home at 1111 14th Avenue was built at the turn of the 20th Century. Two blacksmiths were the home's first residents—Rev. Peter Lindstrom who worked for B & J Manufacturing and Alfred Seagren who worked for Deere & Co. In 1906 C. Albert & Ida Carlson took ownership. Mr. Carlson owned a cutlery/hardware store at 1422 15th Street, Moline. In 1921 Rev. Dr. Walter & Bertha Tillberg purchased the home. Dr. Tillberg was the first pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moline from August 1, 1916, until his retirement on February 1, 1959. Trinity Lutheran had also been the only church Dr. Tillberg had served since his ordination. After retirement and some traveling Dr. & Mrs. Tillberg moved to the parsonage of the Lutheran church in New Era, Iowa, where he became pastor. In their absence, daughter & son-in-law, Patricia & Nils Hasselmo, resided in the home. Nils was a professor at Augustana College. The Tillberg's returned to the home in the mid 1960s. Our current owner, Karen DeKezel, shared a story about the Tillberg daughters stopping by after their Mother's funeral to see the home they had grownup in. The girls reminisced about sitting on the steps of the stairway while their Father married a couple as their Mother played the organ in the dining room. The house was rental property for a number of years until Karen purchased it in 1991.

The architecture of this front-gabled, full-width front porch home can be classified as National Folk with Craftsman influences. The roof and porch both exhibit non-decorative overhanging eaves with exposed rafters and the porch employs heavy square wooden columns resting on brick piers, both of which are craftsman details. The house is thoughtfully painted in a 5 color scheme. The slender wood clapboard siding, porch roof cornice, porch skirt and foundation are all painted dark taupe. Hunter green covers the decorative window caps, front & rear eaves as well as the top & base of the porch columns. The window casings and porch column shafts are cream, window sashes are white, and the balustrade and tongue & groove porch flooring are light gray. The east side of the home features a 3-sided, 2-story bay with original wooden windows and a small inset porch. Both porches retain their original stained wooden beadboard ceilings, adding to the charm of this home. Both front & rear attic windows are original. The front two windows are side by side triple pane single-glazed while the rear 2 windows are single-glazed double hung. The rear of the home reveals a saltbox-influenced rear gabled roof profile which shows its New England influence seen in many National Folk styles.

1546 11th Avenue
Exterior Residential Paint
Built: 1903

This Queen Anne style home at 1546 11th Avenue was built in 1903 for Dr. W. Lincoln Straw and his wife, Emma. Dr. Straw was a dentist in Moline until 1943. The home was sold to Court Porter in 1940 following Emma Straw's death. Mr. Porter lived in the house for only 2 years when ownership passed to Lloyd & Mildred Sharp in 1942. Mr. Sharp, along with his brothers, owned Sharp's Appliance & Repair in Moline. Current owners Nick & Susan Seehafer purchased the home in 1980 from the Sharp Estate.

Cedar Shake siding, which was installed prior to the Seehafer's ownership, was removed exposing the original clapboard. The porch columns & balustrade were rebuilt, a lattice work porch skirt was installed, and the foundation was repaired & tuck-pointed. The home was then given new life with an appropriate 4-color paint scheme. Antique White was applied to the wood clapboard siding; Hunter Green used on the window & door casings, porch columns and porch balustrade; Colonial Red for the front steps and accents on the porch columns & cornice; and White details the window sashes, soffit, porch cornice & ceiling, and lattice work porch skirt.

This hipped roof Queen Anne features a front facing gable and east facing 3-sided full length bay with small single pane windows accented with a geometric diamond design. The asymmetrical facade is defined by a "flattened" window bay on the second story and directly beneath it, is a rounded, tower-like window bay. The rounded, full width, one story wrap around porch and stained glass transom light above the northwest corner window in the front foyer help complete this classic Queen Anne example.

Circa '21 Dinner Theatre
Quad City Quality of Life Award
1828, Third Avenue, Rock Island
Built: c. 1921

Quality of Life Award was given to a recipient outside the City of Moline. Tonight's recipient is Circa 21 Dinner Theatre.

Circa 21 is housed in the historic Fort Armstrong Theatre at 1828 Third Avenue, Rock Island, which originally opened January 21, 1921, as a vaudeville and silent movie house. Walter Rosenfield and Joseph Hopp were the driving force behind the construction of the theatre stating they had faith not only in the film industry but in the community. From the basic ideas provided by Rosenfield and Hopp, architect Benjamin Horn developed an elaborate design for the structure unlike any other theatre building, drawing heavily from the local history of the Fox & Sauk Indians. It's $500,000+ cost to construct was said to represent one dollar for every brick used in the exterior structure.

The 3rd Avenue facade and curved corner are the major exterior focal points. The building is visually divided into 3 horizontal levels: a ground floor, a tall mezzanine dominated by enormous windows, and a narrow attic marked off by decorative cornice moldings. The facade is also organized vertically by a series

of brick pilasters rising from the plain base to the attic where they are crowned with elaborate ornamentation. Most of the detailed decoration on the exterior is found around the mezzanine windows and in the attic level which is a polychrome terra cotta, designed especially for this building by the Midland Terra Cotta Company of Chicago. The predominant color of the terra cotta which frames the windows is ivory with yellow, bright blue, green and brick red for the design details. The corner window is the most dramatic displaying the frontal head of an Indian chief in full regalia.

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