College Square Historic District

About this property

College Square Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located on a bluff north of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The district derives it name from two different colleges that were located here in the 19th century. Iowa College was founded in 1846 by members of the Congregational Church on Western Avenue in Davenport. The land was donated by Antoine LeClaire, one of the city's founders. The school started as a college preparatory school and eventually added a collegiate department. The city decided to extend Western Avenue through the campus so the school moved further east in 1855 to where Central High School is now located. It was at that time that the property was first called College Square. That year they built a new stone building and boarding house for $22,000. Once again the city council voted to extend Main Street through the campus and in 1858 the trustees decided to move to Grinnell, Iowa in 1859 where the school was renamed Grinnell College. The following year the school property was purchased by Henry Washington Lee, the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa for $36,000. He established Griswold College on the west side of the property. It too contained preparatory and collegiate divisions as well as a seminary department. The college started well at the beginning, but began to have financial problems as a result of the Panic of 1873 and started to decline. Kemper Hall, a college preparatory school for boys, was founded on the property. By the end of the 19th century, the schools were officially closed by the diocese. On the east side of the property, Bishop Lee built Grace Cathedral, which is now known as Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. The diocese sold the property on the west side of Main Street to the Davenport Board of Education for $53,000. They built Davenport High School on the property between 1904 and 1907. The north part of the district is largely occupied by houses that were built largely in the two decades following the American Civil War. In the middle of the district is the city's Civil War soldier's monument. Also adjacent to the historic district is Palmer College of Chiropractic. The College Square Historic District is part of the larger Hilltop Neighborhood. In 2010 community planners held workshops and other meetings to revitalize the area. They are focused on the commercial district on Harrison Street, which just to the west of the historic district, as well as infill housing in the residential sections. The cornerstone for the cathedral was laid in 1867 and it was completed in 1873, except for its bell tower and spire. The church was designed by New York City architect Edward Tuckerman Potter and was completed for $80,000. It was only the second Episcopal Church in the United States built exclusively as a cathedral. The attached parish house was completed in 1993, replacing an older building, and the bell tower and spire were completed in 1998 after Potter's original design. The cross on top of the spire reaches 131 feet (40 m) above the ground. On the south side of the cathedral is the dean's house. The buildings are harmonious in appearance, scale, and materials. They are all masonry buildings, grey-tan in color and follow the cathedral's Gothic Revival style.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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