page_title: Putnam-Parker Block
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Putnam-Parker Block / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Current Iowa is a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel located in downtown Davenport, Iowa. It was originally known as the Putnam Building, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_page_description: The Putnam-Parker Block, also known as City Square, are historic structures located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. The property is three buildings that take up the south half of block 43 in what is known as LeClaire's First Addition. The main façade of the structures face south along West Second Street. They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. The former Putnam Building now houses a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel named The Current Iowa.
context_section_description: Antoine LeClaire, who was primarily responsible for establishing the city of Davenport, built a hotel named the LeClaire House on the northeast corner of Main and West Second Streets in 1839. It contained retail space on the ground level. At the other end of the block on the northwest corner of Brady and West Second Streets, he built a three-story brick building in 1850. It also provided retail space on the main level and LeClaire Hall on the upper floors. It was later renamed LeClaire Row. Charles Viele of Evansville, Indiana bought the half-block sometime before 1886. The LeClaire House was renamed the Newcomb House after Viele's sister Mrs. V. Newcomb and the LeClaire Row was renamed the Viele Building. The Fair, a department store that would eventually become the M.L. Parker Department Store occupied the retail space of the Newcomb house at this time.
  William C. Putnam bought Viele's interest in the block in 1895. Putnam was a Davenport attorney and businessman who managed the block for both LeClaire and Viele. He renovated the buildings and lowered the stores to street level. Putnam and his mother, Mary Louisa Duncan Putnam, established the Putnam Trust. The trust owned the entire half-block of West Second Street. It benefited the Putnam Memorial Fund, which was the non-profit charitable support organization for the Davenport Academy of Sciences, now known as the Putnam Museum. The Putnam-Parker Block was a source of revenue for the trust. It is the only real estate development in the city known to serve this type of purpose. The trust paid for the construction of the present museum building and the neighboring building, which housed the former Davenport Museum of Art until it moved downtown as the Figge Art Museum. 
  In 2007, the W.C. Putnam Estate sold controlling interest in the Putnam-Parker Block to a group of investors called One Putnam Centre LLC and maintained a minority interest of 30%. The three buildings were sold to Amrit and Amy Gill in 2013, and they developed them into City Square. The Putnam Trust was dissolved in 2015 when the estate sold its last property, a parking lot on Main Street.
caption: The Putnam Building in 2017.
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