Blackhawk Hotel
Encyclopedia
The Blackhawk Hotel is an eleven-story brick and terra cotta
building located in Downtown Davenport, Iowa
, United States
. It has returned to its original name Hotel Blackhawk. The hotel is located next to the north building of the RiverCenter
, Davenport's convention center, and across the street from the RiverCenter south building. The hotel is just down the street from the Adler Theatre
. The Blackhawk has been host to several high-profile people including Presidents Barack Obama
, Herbert Hoover
, Richard Nixon
, writer Carl Sandburg
, and boxer Jack Dempsey
. Actor Cary Grant
was staying at the Blackhawk Hotel when he died in Davenport. The hotel named rooms 412–414 the "Nixon Suite". Big bands such as Guy Lombardo
and Stan Kenton
played at the Blackhawk on many occasions. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places
since 1983.
The Blackhawk Hotels Corp. was reorganized in 1935. That same year a Junior Ballroom was constructed and the Gold Room was enlarged. A new dining room called the Pompeian Room was opened. The new additions cost $25,000 to complete. Space on the mezzanine level could accommodate 1,000 diners. A sidewalk canopy replaced a marquee over the main entrance in 1955.
In 1967 the hotel was sold to George Norman & Co. who in turn sold it to the Blackhawk American Corporation two years later for more than $1 million. The hotel was once again renovated in 1969. The following year the hotel upgraded its heating system from coal and oil to natural gas.
Plans to convert the hotel into a 300 unit low-rent facility for the elderly were announced on October 13, 1971. A petition for foreclosure on the mortgage was filed in Scott County District Court on December 16, 1971. Financing by the Federal Housing Administration
to convert the hotel to low-rent housing was delayed in early 1972, and Blackhawk American Corp. announced that the hotel would remain open despite the setbacks. On January 20, 1972 plans for converting the Blackhawk to elderly housing were dropped. On December 13, 1973 stockholders were told the hotel was bankrupt. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed against the hotel on March 14, 1974. A U.S. Marshal’s sale of the property on June 28, 1974 failed to produce a buyer as did an auction in November of the same year. The Small Business Administration
, who now owned the hotel, considered selling the property for less than the $820,000 they had put into the building.
The Blackhawk was sold to Blackhawk Hotel Associates, a subsidiary of Knightsbridge, for $1.2 million on January 28, 1975. An auction of the hotel’s furnishings and accessories was held the following month. In June of that year phase one of a nearly $1 million renovation was completed. A year later Davenport Bank & Trust
foreclosed on the hotel's $990,000 mortgage. Judge Max Werling ordered the Blackhawk closed on June 29, 1976. The bank bought the hotel in October of that year at a sheriff’s sale for $1 million.
The building sat empty until Phillips Enterprises began a major renovation of the Blackhawk in 1978. The multi-million dollar project was completed the following year. More than 7,000 people showed up to tour the renovated hotel on September 15, 1979. The Sundance Social Club opened as the hotel’s restaurant. The Blackhawk was part of the “Super Block” development that opened in 1983. It was the first phase of the city’s convention center that would be named the RiverCenter. The hotel would also serve as the convention center’s caterer.
John E. Connolly, a Pittsburgh developer, bought the hotel in 1990 and it became a part of his gambling enterprise that included the President
riverboat. The hotel passed to the Isle of Capri Casino in 2000 when it bought the Davenport riverboat gambling operation.
On February 12, 2006, a fire started in a meth lab on the eighth floor. The hotel had been deteriorating steadily since it was purchased by the Isle of Capri. The City of Davenport took over the property from the Isle of Capri. In October, 2008, a development agreement was signed which gave ownership of the property to Restoration St. Louis. The company announced plans for a $35-million plus restoration. BSI Construction was selected as the general contractor for the project. Demolition work began in January 2009 and renovation work commenced in April of the same year. The hotel re-opened on December 15, 2010.
On September 22, 2010 the RiverCenter/Adler Theatre, Hotel Blackhawk, and the Radisson Quad City Plaza Hotel announced a cooperative marketing agreement branding themselves the “Quad Cities Event Center.” While each remains a separate entity they will advertise and market themselves together. All three entities form one complex that is connected by skywalks and includes a total of 116700 square feet (10,841.8 m²) of space.
design along with modern Art Deco
. The Italian Renaissance is featured on the rusticated stonework
on the entry level, the granite pedestals and terra cotta pilasters on the corners of the main façade, and the decorative pediments of the windows on the second floor. The Art Deco elements are found in the rolled of the corners of the terra cotta pilasters and the streamlined feeling in general of the form itself.
The building is U-shaped to allow for windows in all the rooms and to allow for air circulation and light. The structure is covered in dark colored bricks that contrast with the white terra cotta. An elevator shaft was added to the east side of the building in the 1978-1979 renovation. Originally the lobby contained a two-story atrium, but was enclosed in later years to create additional meeting space. The atrium was restored as a part of the 2010 renovation to the building. A new entrance was also added to the east side of the building facing the parking lot.
Upon its 2010 re-opening, Hotel Blackhawk includes 20 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 130 guestrooms, nine extended-stay rooms and banquet and meeting facilities that include a renovated Gold Room. A bowling alley was re-created in the basement level and shops were incorporated into the main level along with a restaurant and lounge. A new fitness center and a swimming pool as well as a business center were also created.
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
building located in Downtown Davenport, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It has returned to its original name Hotel Blackhawk. The hotel is located next to the north building of the RiverCenter
RiverCenter/Adler Theatre
RiverCenter/Adler Theatre is a convention center located in Downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is made up of three interconnected buildings sited on the north and south sides of East Third Street. The Adler Theatre is connected to the original section of the convention center on the north...
, Davenport's convention center, and across the street from the RiverCenter south building. The hotel is just down the street from the Adler Theatre
Hotel Mississippi-RKO Orpheum Theater
The Hotel Mississippi-RKO Orpheum Theater is located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hotel Mississippi was listed on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 2005...
. The Blackhawk has been host to several high-profile people including Presidents Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
, Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, writer Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
, and boxer Jack Dempsey
Jack Dempsey
William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey was an American boxer who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history. Many of his fights set financial and attendance records, including the first...
. Actor Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
was staying at the Blackhawk Hotel when he died in Davenport. The hotel named rooms 412–414 the "Nixon Suite". Big bands such as Guy Lombardo
Guy Lombardo
Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was a Canadian-American bandleader and violinist.Forming "The Royal Canadians" in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert, and Victor and other musicians from his hometown, Lombardo led the group to international success, billing themselves as creating "The Sweetest...
and Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
played at the Blackhawk on many occasions. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
since 1983.
History
Before construction of the Blackhawk Hotel, the Saratoga Hotel occupied the land. On February 16, 1915 the first seven floors (225 rooms) of the "New Fireproof Hotel Blackhawk" were completed. The building was built at a cost of $1 million by Davenport businessman W.F. Miller. In 1920 the remaining stories, eight through eleven, were added and it gave the hotel 400 rooms.The Blackhawk Hotels Corp. was reorganized in 1935. That same year a Junior Ballroom was constructed and the Gold Room was enlarged. A new dining room called the Pompeian Room was opened. The new additions cost $25,000 to complete. Space on the mezzanine level could accommodate 1,000 diners. A sidewalk canopy replaced a marquee over the main entrance in 1955.
In 1967 the hotel was sold to George Norman & Co. who in turn sold it to the Blackhawk American Corporation two years later for more than $1 million. The hotel was once again renovated in 1969. The following year the hotel upgraded its heating system from coal and oil to natural gas.
Plans to convert the hotel into a 300 unit low-rent facility for the elderly were announced on October 13, 1971. A petition for foreclosure on the mortgage was filed in Scott County District Court on December 16, 1971. Financing by the Federal Housing Administration
Federal Housing Administration
The Federal Housing Administration is a United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. It insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying...
to convert the hotel to low-rent housing was delayed in early 1972, and Blackhawk American Corp. announced that the hotel would remain open despite the setbacks. On January 20, 1972 plans for converting the Blackhawk to elderly housing were dropped. On December 13, 1973 stockholders were told the hotel was bankrupt. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed against the hotel on March 14, 1974. A U.S. Marshal’s sale of the property on June 28, 1974 failed to produce a buyer as did an auction in November of the same year. The Small Business Administration
Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration is a United States government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses...
, who now owned the hotel, considered selling the property for less than the $820,000 they had put into the building.
The Blackhawk was sold to Blackhawk Hotel Associates, a subsidiary of Knightsbridge, for $1.2 million on January 28, 1975. An auction of the hotel’s furnishings and accessories was held the following month. In June of that year phase one of a nearly $1 million renovation was completed. A year later Davenport Bank & Trust
American Commercial and Savings Bank
American Commercial and Savings Bank is located at 201-209 Main Street, Davenport, Iowa, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is known locally as the Wells Fargo Bank building.-History:...
foreclosed on the hotel's $990,000 mortgage. Judge Max Werling ordered the Blackhawk closed on June 29, 1976. The bank bought the hotel in October of that year at a sheriff’s sale for $1 million.
The building sat empty until Phillips Enterprises began a major renovation of the Blackhawk in 1978. The multi-million dollar project was completed the following year. More than 7,000 people showed up to tour the renovated hotel on September 15, 1979. The Sundance Social Club opened as the hotel’s restaurant. The Blackhawk was part of the “Super Block” development that opened in 1983. It was the first phase of the city’s convention center that would be named the RiverCenter. The hotel would also serve as the convention center’s caterer.
John E. Connolly, a Pittsburgh developer, bought the hotel in 1990 and it became a part of his gambling enterprise that included the President
President (steamboat)
President was a steamboat that currently lies dismantled in St. Elmo, Illinois. Originally named Cincinnati, it was built in 1924, and is the only remaining "Western Rivers" style sidewheel river excursion steamboat in the United States...
riverboat. The hotel passed to the Isle of Capri Casino in 2000 when it bought the Davenport riverboat gambling operation.
On February 12, 2006, a fire started in a meth lab on the eighth floor. The hotel had been deteriorating steadily since it was purchased by the Isle of Capri. The City of Davenport took over the property from the Isle of Capri. In October, 2008, a development agreement was signed which gave ownership of the property to Restoration St. Louis. The company announced plans for a $35-million plus restoration. BSI Construction was selected as the general contractor for the project. Demolition work began in January 2009 and renovation work commenced in April of the same year. The hotel re-opened on December 15, 2010.
On September 22, 2010 the RiverCenter/Adler Theatre, Hotel Blackhawk, and the Radisson Quad City Plaza Hotel announced a cooperative marketing agreement branding themselves the “Quad Cities Event Center.” While each remains a separate entity they will advertise and market themselves together. All three entities form one complex that is connected by skywalks and includes a total of 116700 square feet (10,841.8 m²) of space.
Architecture
The Blackhawk Hotel was designed by the Davenport architectural firm of Temple & Burrows. Davenport architect Arthur Ebeling served as an associate on the project. It features Italian RenaissanceItalian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
design along with modern Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
. The Italian Renaissance is featured on the rusticated stonework
Rustication (architecture)
thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
on the entry level, the granite pedestals and terra cotta pilasters on the corners of the main façade, and the decorative pediments of the windows on the second floor. The Art Deco elements are found in the rolled of the corners of the terra cotta pilasters and the streamlined feeling in general of the form itself.
The building is U-shaped to allow for windows in all the rooms and to allow for air circulation and light. The structure is covered in dark colored bricks that contrast with the white terra cotta. An elevator shaft was added to the east side of the building in the 1978-1979 renovation. Originally the lobby contained a two-story atrium, but was enclosed in later years to create additional meeting space. The atrium was restored as a part of the 2010 renovation to the building. A new entrance was also added to the east side of the building facing the parking lot.
Upon its 2010 re-opening, Hotel Blackhawk includes 20 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 130 guestrooms, nine extended-stay rooms and banquet and meeting facilities that include a renovated Gold Room. A bowling alley was re-created in the basement level and shops were incorporated into the main level along with a restaurant and lounge. A new fitness center and a swimming pool as well as a business center were also created.