The Ficke Block is located in downtown Davenport, Iowa

Davenport, Iowa

Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and it is 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...

. It is immediately adjacent to the Henry Berg Building

Henry Berg Building

The Henry Berg Building is located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983. It is on the same block as the American Commercial and Savings Bank, Central Office Building and 202 W. Third Street. It is also next to the...

, which is also listed on the NRHP.

History

The building at 309 Harrison Street is associated with a prominent Davenport Attorney Charles August (C.A.) Ficke. He was responsible for building or renovating numerous properties in the downtown area. The block, which has the appearance of two separate buildings, was built in 1899 to house the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and apartments on the upper floors. The southern store front (307) became the L.R. Wareham pool hall in 1915 and remained a pool hall through the 1940s. The north side (309) was home to a variety of businesses that included: City Fuel and Lumber Company, Bee Jay Tire Service, the Savoy Café, the Colorado Restaurant, the Old Timer (tavern), and the Three Hundred Nine Tavern. It currently houses the Berg Apartments.

Architecture

The Ficke Block is a four-story, brick

Brick

A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...

 structure built on a stone foundation. It features many details found in late Victorian architecture

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

: rusticated, semi-circular window arches on the third floor and flat stone lintels over the paired windows on the fourth floor recall the Romanesque

Romanesque Revival architecture

Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...

 style. A pair of two-story bay windows with embossed garland swags, wrought iron balconies, and ornate cornice

Cornice

Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...

s reflect the Queen Anne style. The storefronts, however, have been significantly altered.

External links

• Archiplanet Listing