The Davenport (Davenport, Iowa)

The Davenport Hotel was a historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. In 2020 it was included as a contributing property in the Davenport Downtown Commercial Historic District. It was an apartment building called The Davenport. A rear portion of the building collapsed in 2023. The majority of the building was demolished on June 12, 2023. Several remaining sections were demolished over the next three days.

History
Stockholders incorporated the Davenport Hotel Company in 1905 to construct a modern hotel that was roughly equidistant from the city's two passenger depots. The construction of the Davenport Hotel in 1907 ushered in the third phase of hotel construction in the city of Davenport. It replaced the Kimball House as Davenport's finest hotel. The other hotels that belong to this era are the Dempsey Hotel (1913), the Hotel Blackhawk (1915) and the Hotel Mississippi (1931). It was considered the first "modern" hotel in the city, and was touted as one of the finest hotels in the Mississippi River Valley when it opened. The hotel featured such amenities as "fireproof" construction, elevators, a dining room, and sample rooms for traveling salesmen. The building's interior also featured "steam heat, hot and cold water, telephones and electric lights, heavy brass bedsteads with box springs and hair mattresses, velvet carpets and fancy window draperies, quartered oak and Flemish oak furniture, mahogany combination tables and writing desks and beveled mirrors." It was also the first of Davenport's "tall buildings."

The Davenport was built a block away from the new Rock Island Railroad station making it convenient for travelers. However, it was undermined by the Dempsey Hotel, which was built next to the station and provided moderately priced rooms. The more elegant Hotel Blackhawk also resulted in a loss of business to the Davenport and the hotel was sold to the Blackhawk Hotel company in 1916. The hotel was damaged in a large fire in 1939.

The building remained a hotel into the 1960s, but it eventually became an apartment building. It was extensively renovated in the mid-1980s at a cost of $5.5 million.

Partial collapse 

On May 28, 2023, the building partially collapsed, calling the building's future into question. The back part of the building, which had been painted red several years before, had a 6-story collapse causing millions of dollars in damage. Complaints had been made by residents which had led to brick work and other repairs being made to the structure. At the time of the collapse repair work was under way, but the brick work had been completed and deemed structurally sound by an outside engineer. Additional damage had occurred to the building after a derecho in August 2020, which had resulted in some residents having to evacuate the building.

Eight people were rescued and about a dozen others were escorted out of the building, with additional search and rescue delayed until water and gas utilities could be shut off. On May 29, the city initially stated that there was no credible information that anyone was missing and that they would move forward with demolition plans the next day. However, after a over 150 person search effort that used thermal imaging, drones and search and rescue dogs, a missing resident was discovered alive and rescued from her fourth-story window. Five tenants were still unaccounted for, two of which were reportedly in the building during the collapse and were still reportedly missing after a search on May 30 where several animals were rescued from the building. On June 3 the body of one of the missing tenants was recovered from the rubble of the collapsed building. On June 5, the remains of two other victims were recovered.

Multiple people protested at the site, with signs such as "Save Lives Not Property" in regards to the multiple people still reportedly missing. The City of Davenport filed a new enforcement action against the building owner, Andrew Wold, and he was fined $300 for failure to maintain the structure and $95 in court fees.

Demolition

Architecture
The Davenport Hotel was designed by a local architecture firm, Temple and Burrows with P.T. Burrows as the architect in charge. They were also responsible for the Hotel Blackhawk, the Union Savings Bank and Trust (1924), and the Federal Court House (1932–1933).  
  
The building was six stories in height and was constructed in brick over a steel structure. It most likely had a concrete and brick foundation. The building's character was defined by its form as its decorative elements are more reserved. The six-story "towers" surrounded a two-story entrance in the center, which created a sense of mass and enclosure. The building's exterior decorative elements were confined to a cornice, which is now gone, and the main entrance. It's possible the cornice was lost in the 1939 fire. The first floor of the building contained retail space and apartments on the upper floors.

References

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Building and structure collapses in the United States
Hotel buildings completed in 1907
Apartment buildings in Davenport, Iowa
Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa
National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa
Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa
Demolished buildings and structures in Iowa
Buildings and structures demolished in 2023