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Awards
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2006 Preservation Awards
Held May 17, 2006 at the Butterworth Center. The Quad City Quality of Life Award was presented to Kone and its annual Christmas Tree display in downtown Moline. The Moline Family Business Heritage Award was given to Moline Forge (1947).
Preservationist of the Year was presented to Doug House for his efforts with the Prospect Park Revitalization, among other activities to promote preservation in Moline.
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Clark and Emily built their home at 2105 - 15th Street during the height of his success at the age of 46; living there for 13 years before Clark moved to Colorado to accept a position as Director of Finance for the National Swedish sanitarium. Clark’s son, Clifford Anderson then moved into the house with his wife Inez and lived there for four years. The house suffered vacancy and lack of maintenance for a number years. The home was purchased by current owners, Richard and Maureen Fiebig, in 1989. They have kept true to the original interior and exterior design as they found it; recently painting the exterior trim and porches.
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This is a Dutch Colonial Revival with a forward facing gambrel roof with flared eaves. The house is an asymmetrical interpretation of a Dutch Colonial with a partial integral porch set in under the second floor of the house. It has two dormers with a hipped roofline. The front of the house features a broken pediment and a shed roof below the double hung windows on the second floor. The first floor has a bay element in the front with an oval window on the front porch.
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Often referred to as the Bennet House, Michael and Karen LeMaster are only the third owners in the home’s long history. William C. Bennet came to Moline in 1868 but did not own the property until 1878. A year later, Mr. Bennet must have been working on his home because while the LeMasters were removing wallpaper in the front hallway they found the signature of the wallpaperer, A.Olson, 1879. By this time, William Bennet was Secretary of the Barnard and Lee Company and well on his way to becoming a prominent community leader and public servant. He was on the Moline School Board for 15 years, Mayor of Moline from 1893-1895, and an alderman.
The house remained in the Bennet family until 1947 when Mrs. Rena Wilson became owner in exchanged for property she owned that the First Congregational Church wanted for their new parking lot. She apparently was asked what property she wanted and named the Bennet house.
The house was turned into as many as 5 apartments in the 1980s. It was not until 1992 when Michael and Karen LeMaster purchased the home with the intent to return it to a single family residence. They also purchased the little house on the north side to use as rental property and then eventually as storage while they slowly restored the inside of the house to its original plan.
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The Mechanics and Merchants National Bank was one of the first tenants in the north building followed by Coffler and Blitstein Clothing. The Leader Store occupied both buildings from 1942 to 1970. Then a series of restaurants and taverns followed.
Dieter Rebitzer, a native of Austria, purchased the buildings in 2002 and has done extensive work on the exterior. The Emmanuel Painting and Design Company, Moline, removed old paint from the buildings brick and stone façade before repainting the brick in a soft tan. The windows and cantilevered bay are trimmed in light green, black and white. The buildings street level received a new look with multiple sets of wooden French doors which enhance the buildings European Pub look.
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The project included filling and grading of the field, installation of a drainage system, paving 14,000 feet of runways with asphalt, paving shoulders and parking areas, and the installation of a lighting system. Also built was a structure that included a gas station, restaurant, ticket office, and the airport manager’s office and residence. It was located at the southwest corner of U. S. Highways 6 and 150, just south across Airport Road from the current Skyline Restaurant. Hangers and a pump house were built to its west along Airport Road. To complete the project, a large hanger with abutting ticket office, airline offices, and weather bureau was built about 300 yards to the west of the intersection. This served as the primary passenger terminal until a modern terminal was built in 1954. This depression-era project brought the airport up to a high standard for the time. It was one of many federally funded projects in the 1930s that improved local roads, parks, and government facilities in Moline, the Quad Cities, and nationwide.
Of the original structures built as part of this project, the pump house is the only one that remains today. It is known affectionately by airport staff as the “Taco Bell Building” because of its distinctive tower that carries a touch of mission styling. Along with other airport buildings, William H. Schulzke, a prominent Moline architect who had designed Wharton Field House and many other major buildings, designed it. The pump house is 21 X 34 X 10 feet in dimension, and along with an associated water system, cost $9,666. Quoting from Schulzke: “The pump house has an electrically driven pump with a capacity of 100 gallons per minute and a high pressure storage tank of 2200 gallons capacity to produce 100 pounds pressure on the fire and water lines. Four thousand feet of piping and 3 sets of fire hose lines have been provided.” Apparently fires were extinguished by connecting hoses to hydrants rather than through the use of a fire truck. Eventually the Coal Valley Volunteer Fire Department served the airport, and in 1960 an airport fire station was built.
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During the design phase, it was noted several of the Moline park pavilions had characteristics --( that is the archways and brick structure)--of the Wharton Field House. The basic tenet was to best compliment the history of Browning Field and maintain the architectural integrity of Wharton Field House as designed by William H. Scultzke backing the 1920’s. The concrete base of the structure below the brick clearly resembles Wharton.
The next challenge was to replicate the brick patterns color scheme.. They were very fortunate in locating the proper mix of brick that incredibly matches that of the existing Wharton Field House. Once the brick was obtained, they worked diligently to match the architectural aspects of Wharton. The arch was repeated in the design entrance. The contractor worked to replicate the brick pattern throughout to include the mismatch design around the entire circumference (of the building)…just below the fascia.
The wrought iron entrance fence was designed using the paladin style (top curve arch) window located on the North-side of Wharton Field House. The architectural designer did a great job replicating this concept for both sides of the entrance. The Wharton Field House roof has metal roofing, thus they elected to go with the metal roofing.
The Booster Club wanted to create a lasting landmark that would be distinct from the Moline park pavilions. Thus the design a four-sided cupola was incorporated that would be constantly back-lit. The style and font of the “M” is the same as that of the original Wharton Field House basketball floor of 69 years.
The Moline Booster Club properly lighted the structure and surrounding area for both safety and security reasons. They sought to replicate 1920’s through1930’s period lighting. They were fortunate to find light fixtures that closely resembled the period and were very vandal resistant. It was decided for design purposes to have three lights mounted on the front of the building that wouldn’t obscure participants during sporting events at Browning.
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The first big improvement to the city's water quality was done by A.E. Anderson. Mr. Anderson was a chemist and later water superintendent for Moline. He originated chemical treatment shortly after his hire in 1913 and supervised the renovation and expansion in of the facility in 1933.
In the 1990s it became apparent that improvements were needed at the plant to keep our water safe and secure and to take Moline well into the 21st century. Greg Swanson, Plant Superintendent, and then Alderman Pat O’Brien, Chair of Public Utilities for Moline, attended numerous meetings deciding what needed to be done and how to finance it.
As you walk on the red brick flooring and concrete walkways, the style and design are so similar from original plant to later additions that you can barely tell which era of plant you are standing near. Such great care has been taken to steward this plant and keep everything maintained in top condition that even the oldest parts of the plant shine brightly with brass couplings and decoration, ceramic coated block walls, and railings that gleam clean and bright. The most modern of processes available in water treatment exist in this marvelous Moline owned plant with its art deco inspired interior and exterior design. Moline citizens can be proud of the water plant and the fact that we are the only local Illinois municipality to have lime treatment (water softening) process in the water.
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Maple Lane subdivision was filed on May 3, 1927, on land that had been owned by W. W. Kunkle, a nursery owner. Maple Lane is much younger than its nearest neighbor to the north, Stewart’s Addition to South Moline, which was platted in 1883. Maple Lane is older than its immediate neighbor to the south, Elm Lane, which was platted in 1940. On Elm Lane, all but two of its thirteen houses were built in one year, 1941, and most are of virtually identical design. In contrast, the age and designs of homes in Maple Lane vary considerably. Ten houses were built in the 1920s, the oldest being a 1921 bungalow. Six were built between 1948 and 1951, and two in 1998.
Most of the twenty dwellings on Maple Lane are of modest size. Thirteen have one story, and seven have one and a half stories; most have two bedrooms. In spite of their uniformity of size, however, they represent variations on distinctive twentieth century housing styles, including bungalow, mission, and even Colonial Revival Cape Code. They are sided in various materials and generally well kept.
However, the distinctive character of this subdivision does not reside in the historical or architectural character of the dwellings. Instead, the organization of homes along a block-long walking lane is a spatial pattern that is quite unusual in Moline. All of the houses have yards—in most cases front yards—between them and the dual walkways in the center of the “lane.” At both ends of the lane are stairways leading up from 15th and 16th Streets, and at the west end are four brick monuments on which “Maple Lane” plaques are displayed. Together the stairways and monuments act as visual “bookends” to the subdivision. Overall, this design gives a sense of cohesion to the subdivision.
A few medium-sized trees occupy the space between the parallel walkways. Typically, children’s bicycles and toys are visible, but otherwise the yards are well maintained and uncluttered with structures, fences, or machines. And, of course, no automobiles are present. The resulting clarity allows interrupted vistas down the lane, in both directions. Thus, resident and visitor alike can appreciate the original design that focuses attention toward front yards and walking spaces, and away from automobile spaces.
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Common tradition by ironworkers nationwide is to top out a finished metal structure with a fir tree and a US flag at completion of every project. When the metal substructure of the tower was completed in 1966, and ironworkers erected a fir tree and flag high up in the sky, it seemed like a good idea to continue the tradition of an evergreen Christmas tree each holiday season.
Bill Dobbelaere, Facilities Manager at Kone, has seen the methods change drastically through the years for both decoration and hoisting of the tree to its destination. The first year the tree was eight feet tall and had five strings of lights on it. Each year the tree would be tightly bound and brought up through the center of the tower and pushed out through a hole in the roof. This method was used for more than twenty year. Once on top it would be decorated lying down and then manually lifted on a portable tree stand.
In 1987 and 1988, the tree was placed on the top of the tower by helicopter. Starting with 1989, the tree has been lifted off the ground and put into a permanent stand by a crane located on top of the tower. Finding a tree has not been a problem since at least six trees are offered annually to Kone. The trees are usually 20 feet tall and display 750 multi-colored lights taking the volunteer employees six hours to string.
This past November, for the first time, the Christmas tree was toppled in the high velocity winds. Another tree was quickly found but after 40 years of using rope to help secure the tree to the roof corners, it was decided to switch to steel cables.
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, Kone placed an American flag on the tower starting another landmark tradition for the local skyline. The 8 by 12-foot flag is replaced every three months because of wind damage.
Due to the large audience on both sides of the Mississippi River, the Kone's tree and flag greatly add to the quality of life for all residents.
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Of central importance to the project was the renovation of the 100-plus year old “Historic Grand Pavilion,” located near the lagoon at the center of the park, which was completed in June 2005. Of central importance to the project was the redesign of the pavilion to honor as nearly as possible its original design and appearance.
As part of the computer-based design process, an early photograph was superimposed upon a recent one to aid in the incorporation of design elements from the original pavilion. The roof was renovated to duplicate the original shake roof with architectural shingles. The distinctive columns and railings surrounding the upper deck was closely matched to the original. Because the lower deck was enclosed in the original pavilion and open in the restored version, the column and railing designs of the upper deck were mimicked for the lower. As a result, the restored version possesses more of the decorative elements of the original pavilion design, along with a series of vertical elements that were not present in the original. It was not possible to recreate a grand staircase that led to the east side of the upper deck because of the need to meet accessibility requirements. A painting scheme for the entire structure was used to closely match the original.
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