Willard School.

This 1900 Willard School building, located at 16th Avenue and 16th Street, was the second Moline school to be constructed on the bluff, after the 1891 Lincoln School. Willard’s predecessor was the 16th Street School, a small wooden building at the same site. It dated back to before 1885 when it, along with the 7th Street School, came under the jurisdiction of the Moline School District. Architect O. Z Cervin designed the current building, which opened in spring 1900 as Willard School. Its cost came under budget by $447. The school was named after Frances Willard, who had helped establish the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She was a temperance leader, a supporter of prison reform and women’s suffrage, and a promoter of the use of bicycles. The local branch of the WCTU had petitioned the school board to name the school after Willard, who had passed away in 1898.

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