Bottom: Red Cliff, 1963
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John Deere purchased the Italianate home of grocer William Dawson in 1875, and spent the next five years more than doubling its size into the more ostentatious and fashinable Second Empire home in this picture. The home included black walnut woodwork, an ingenious air conditioning system which pulled cool air from below the hill, and an unparalled view of the Mississippi River and the John Deere factories below. Over the next five years, John Deere would double the size of the original "cottage" turning it into an impressive Second Empire style home. John Deere added two very innovative additions to his new home. One was the placement of iron rods in all corners of the house to add stability to the structure in case of high winds on the bluff. The other was the installation of an underground air-conditioning system that brought cool air up into this house. The changes that Deere made to the home have all been documented during the recent restoration.
The John Deere house left the Deere family in 1933. It was converted into apartments in 1937 and continued as Red Cliff Apartments with 16 efficiency apartments listed when it was purchased by the City of Moline in 1993. By the late 1980s the structure had fallen into a serious state of disrepair and although many looked at the property when the City put it up for sale, those interested lacked sufficient funding to make the necessary repairs and complete the restoration. Fortunately for Moline and for the historic property, the home was purchased in 1996 with plans to restore it back to the way it looked when John Deere lived there. The buyers plan to open it to the public as a Social Center and Bed & Breakfast upon completion. This house, being the only physical structure still standing in Moline directly associated with John Deere, makes it one of our most valuable Historic Landmarks.
This house was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, and is also a Moline City Landmark.
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