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Awards
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2008 Preservation Awards
Held May 21, 2008 at the Butterworth Center. The Quad City Quality of Life Award was presented to the City of Moline's Historic Preservation Commission, with special recognition to Barb Sandberg, in recognition for the creation of Moline's Downtown Commercial Historic District, established in 2007. The Moline Family Business Heritage Award was presented to Meyer Landscape & Design, Inc. (est. 1950).
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At the time he built this house, Mr. Johnson was about 44 years old, having come from Sweden in 1899. At first he worked as a carpenter in Moline for about three years, eventually relocating to California until after the San Francisco earthquake, when he decided to move back to Moline. He built his first home in Moline in 1909 on 15th Street, and moved into it with his bride, Selma Anna Sofia Carlson. As a contractor he built more houses, four of which he owned as rental properties. During this time he and his family were active in the Mission Covenant Church.
Curt’ s mother Dorothy was 14 when the family moved into the 2120 12th Street house, living there until she was married in 1934. She and her husband Clifford lived in another of the houses her father built for around three years, then moved back to the 12th Street house when her mother died. When Curt’s grandfather, Mr. Johnson, died in 1947, the house was willed to three grandchildren and Curt's mother was granted the house as a living estate; and after her death in 1996, he and his brother and sister decided to keep the house in the family.
Even though the Roseman's were living and working in California at that time, they ended up buying the house from his brother and sister. Curt and Libby moved back into it in 1999.
The house is a large wood frame Craftsman style bungalow with a cross-gabled roof. When painting the home, the Rosemans chose a soft peach color for the clapboard siding on the body of the house, reminiscent of the colors in their California neighborhood. A bright white was chosen for the square porch columns, window trim, soffits and accent boards. The home consists of one and one-half stories with two bedrooms and attic space on the second floor, and two bedrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room, and bath on the first floor.
Some of the interesting facts about the house include a front porch that was originally open, but was enclosed after they won a Moline piano which was put into the living room. Also, off the vestibule, his grandfather had an office with three entrances; one from the vestibule, one from the living room, and one from his bedroom. His grandfather ran his contracting business out of that office. He also built a three car garage for vehicles and contracting supplies.
Additionally, the kitchen contains the original cabinets, icebox, and 1934 stove which they still use. The kitchen also includes a trap door for the swept up dirt to go into. The bathroom has the original fixtures, except for a shower that the Roseman’s put in. And, the dining room includes the original buffet, and a German clock that was allegedly smuggled in from Sweden to avoid paying the duty tax on it! The house has at least 26 original doors, most of which still work very well. This amazing house has been home to family members for over 84 years; quite an accomplishment in this day and age.
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The house passed through a variety of owners who all left their marks on the house. When it was built in 1907 it belonged to Charles and Kate Candee. Charles operated a grocery store at 1134 25th Street. Both buildings in the Candee Grove Addition that had been annexed to the city in 1905. At this time, 41 grocers advertised in the City Directory but Charles’ store was the only one east of 15th Street and south of 11thAve. He owned several lots as the area was still being developed. After Charles died in 1912, the house was sold to John McCaffey and it remained in the McCaffey family for 50 years.
The first task in restoration was to find a contractor, someone who would work on an old house, someone they felt they could trust and would really listen to their wishes. Since every project ended up having one or more problems, this trust was often tested. For example, when it was time to put the cast iron tub back in the upstairs bathroom, miscalculations in placement of pipes meant some of the wainscoting and newly laid ceramic tile floor had to be removed and then re-laid. So you can imagine the Potters delight when they returned from their honeymoon to find a finished laundry room upstairs in place of the kitchenette and everything worked!
A major problem that had to be addressed was the roof over the addition on the north of the house. The roof leaked and the lack of substantial foundation caused this addition to start sinking unevenly resulting in tilting windows and doors and large gaps where walls met.
Dick started digging and removing the poor foundation and installing jacks to hold the addition in place while he excavated more deeply. A contractor was hired to lay a proper foundation and then the inner restoration could begin. This included much needed insulation.
Finally, in 1998, they tackled the biggest project, the kitchen.. They dealt with the same contractor and began in September. The project was not finished until the following February and included the subcontractor taking off in December for Colorado and leaving on area of the kitchen with plastic sheeting instead of a wall! (Imagine the heating bills!)
Once the inside was basically finished, the Potters turned to restoration of the outside. The house had aluminum siding and they wished to remove this and go back to the original look of wooden siding. So they had an “Unveiling” in July of 2001. You can see what a project this was and how much you appreciate the help of friends. 75% of the stripping was accomplished that day and the rest Dick and friends completed in the next few days.
Ever the salvager, Dick used siding from a house that was being torn down nearby and rotten boards and absent boards were replaced as much as possible by the salvaged board.
Now the task was to scrape the entire outside which Dick did because he feared a contractor would not do the job properly. Kathy chose the paint color and then the roof to compliment the paint. She is pleased to note that although it took several years to finish the exterior, Lowes had no trouble matching the paint. The aluminum windows, some 40 in number, have all been replaced with wooden frames. Dick demolished the old cement steps and built wooden ones to match the era of the house.
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Beling Consultants purchased the building in 1971 using the upper floors for their offices and renting out classrooms for office space. Today, many in the area refer to the “Old” Moline High School as the Beling Building. After merging with Raymond Professional Group the building was put up for sale in January 2000.
On January 7, 2003, a fire broke out around 5p.m. with flames 7 to 8 feet high shooting out of several windows on the top floor of building. The fire was brought under control in two hours but two large rooms on the west side of the fourth floor sustained most of the fire damage. At this point many in the community began to worry about the fate of this building that meant so much to all that had attended school there.
In 2005, Gorman & Company came the rescue of the building. In a $9.4 million public/private partnership engineered between the City of Moline, the Illinois Housing Development Authority and Gorman & Company, the building was turned into a multifamily housing community. There are 60 apartments, twelve of which are targeted for physically disabled individuals. Available to the apartment community is a fully equipped business center, community room, stadium style theatre and a fitness center. There is also a dark room, woodworking shop, kiln and gallery space. As you can see by the amenities they have targeted the apartment for artists and the creative class.
To preserve its architectural integrity and charm the company preserved important features such as the original grand entrance, terrazzo floors, monumental stairways, period lighting fixtures, remaining chalkboards and wall sculptures dedicated by classes in the 1920’s.
Gorman and Company, headquartered in Madison, WI, is a group of companies founded in 1985 with a goal of creating quality-housing opportunities for a variety of income levels. They specialize in renovating historic buildings and renewing traditional urban neighborhoods. We in the Moline Preservation Society want to thank Gorman and Company for coming to Moline and through adaptive reuse saving our “Old” Moline High School”. Read more about the history of the old Moline High School in our virtual tour.
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This was a 19th century version of the big box store!
In 1911 the ground was broken on The Alsene Flats Building, being completed a year later on the north side of the Sundeen Building. By 1914 it housed the Union Billiard Room, run by Thodi Liljegren. It also housed Moline Barber Supplies, and for many years it housed Moline Upholstery.
As was common for storekeepers of the time, the Alsene family would live in the apartments upstairs for many years. They lived there until 1951.
In later years, the building was home to 5th Avenue Bakery and the Old Mill Ice Cream Store. In the 1970’s Adolph’s Taco House would take up shop next door.
As surely many of you remember, the building had seen better days until purchased by David Wise. Although he was anxious to renovate the building, the effort was cost prohibitive until he contact the Moline Historic Preservation Commission about historic property tax credits. With Barb Sandberg and others, the achievement of a downtown historic district provided just the tax breaks necessary to get this project underway.
The Alsene Flats is a two part, three story apartment building that displays influences of the Chicago School of Architecture. Patterned brickwork is noted in the façade with a decretive frieze band below a dropped cornice, supported with stone brackets. But bringing that detail back to life was not an overnight project.
Extensive cleaning and tuckpointing will ensure that the exterior of the building will continue to be a jewel of the downtown area for years to come. Wrought iron balconies on the buildings façade giving it a very urban trendy look, yet these are original features of the building. When restoration began, it was learned that the wrought iron railings were too short to meet code, so contractors removed them, custom-built new extensions to the bottom, and raised the entire railing to a level to meet code.
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