By the early 1990s Moline's downtown historic block was in terrible disrepair and on its way to demolition. Luckily for the city of Moline, preservationists, business people and the entire community rallied around its restoration. Now the first-class restoration is one of the centerpieces of downtown Moline.

As the picture to the left shows, the Skinner Block was a bustling town center at the turn of the century. But by 1991, the building was boarded up to prevent vandalism, and without an interested buyer, one of Moline's most historic commercial districts was slated for demolition.

Moline's Historic Block contains a variety of late nineteenth century buildings. This large brick office and commercial building known as the Skinner Block, at 1530-1532 3rd Avenue (River Drive), consists of two separate buildings with the Italianate segment on the corner being constructed around 1884 and the adjoining Sullivanesque portion built in 1889. The buildings consist of three stories edged with a wide ornate cornice that forms deep eaves with intermittent brackets. Large brick pilasters topped with ornate capitals divide the face of the buildings into near equal symmetrical blocks. The Italianate section has tall, thin windows, with segmental arched crowns, center keystones and stone sills. The windows are framed with a raised border of brick which encompasses the second and third floor.

The Skinner Block before and after