Charles Whitaker House (Davenport, Iowa)

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Charles Whitaker House
Charles Whitaker House.JPG
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Location 1530 E. 12th St.
Davenport, Iowa
Coordinates 41°31′56″N90°33′8″W / 41.53222°N 90.55222°W / 41.53222; -90.55222 Coordinates: 41°31′56″N90°33′8″W / 41.53222°N 90.55222°W / 41.53222; -90.55222
Area 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built 1885
Architectural style Queen Anne
MPS Davenport MRA
NRHP reference # 85000090 [1]
Added to NRHP January 14, 1985

The Charles Whitaker House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. [1]

Davenport, Iowa City in Iowa, United States

Davenport is the county seat of Scott County in Iowa and is located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. It is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population estimate of 382,630 and a CSA population of 474,226; it is the 90th largest CSA in the nation. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine Le Claire and was named for his friend George Davenport, a former English sailor who served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812, served as a supplier Fort Armstrong, worked as a fur trader with the American Fur Company, and was appointed a quartermaster with the rank of colonel during the Black Hawk War. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 99,685. The city appealed this figure, arguing that the Census Bureau missed a section of residents, and that its total population was more than 100,000. The Census Bureau estimated Davenport's 2011 population to be 100,802.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

History

Charles and Josephine Whitaker took up residence in this house around 1892. He was a carpenter at that time and may have built this house and a similar house across Adams Street himself. [2] Whitaker went on to become a general building contractor. He continued to live here until 1932.

Architecture

The two-story house features a three-bay, front gable plan that is similar to the McClelland style, which was a popular vernacular house style in Davenport in the late 19th century. [2] Decorative details from the Greek Revival, Italianate, or Queen Anne styles were generally added to the basic house form. The Whitaker house utilizes elements of the Queen Anne style. They are found in the full-height polygonal bay with decorative shingling on the south side, the pendant vergeboard and the attenuated brackets below the gable. The house's location on a corner lot is accentuated by the polygonal porch and its main entrance set in a chamfered corner.

Bay (architecture) space defined by the vertical piers, in a building

In architecture, a bay is the space between architectural elements, or a recess or compartment. Bay comes from Old French baee, meaning an opening or hole.

Vernacular architecture category of architecture based on local needs, construction materials and reflecting local traditions

Vernacular architecture encompasses the vast majority of the world's built environment, and thus resists a simple definition. It is perhaps best understood not by what it is, but what it can reveal about the culture of a people or place at any given time. The sheer range of global building types and developments--from Mongolian yurts to Japanese minka to American roadside commercial strips--suggests that vernacular architecture is everywhere, but tends to be disregarded or overlooked in traditional histories of architecture and design. As geographer Amos Rapoport has famously written, vernacular architecture constitutes 95 percent of the world's built environment: that which is not designed by professional architects and engineers. While such an understanding has its limitations, it nonetheless indicates the vastness of the subject and helps us recognize that all aspects of the built environment can impart something about the society and culture of a people or place. If nothing else, vernacular architecture cannot be distilled into a series of easy-to-digest patterns, materials, or elements. Vernacular architecture is not a style.

Greek Revival architecture architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries

The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture. The term was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1842.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 Martha Bowers; Marlys Svendsen-Roesler. "Charles Whitaker House". National Park Service . Retrieved 2015-03-16. with photos