Potter–Williams House | |
The hill the house was built into is seen on the right. | |
Location | 427 E. 7th St. Davenport, Iowa |
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Coordinates | 41°31′59″N90°35′26″W / 41.53306°N 90.59056°W Coordinates: 41°31′59″N90°35′26″W / 41.53306°N 90.59056°W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1872 |
Architectural style | Greek Revival |
MPS | Davenport MRA |
NRHP reference # | 84001522 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 5, 1984 |
The Potter–Williams House was a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. This Vernacular style Greek Revival residence was built in 1873. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, [1] and has subsequently been torn down.
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.
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.
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.
Waldo M. Potter, the editor of the Davenport Gazette, had this house built from 1872 to 1873. [2] Alexander F. Williams, a partner in the wholesale and retail hardware firm Seig & Williams, bought the house in 1878. He continued to live here into the 1890s. Williams initially was involved in dry goods, but eventually moved into hardware. Seig & Williams was formed in 1869 and sold heavy hardware. Williams oversaw the buying for the company.
The house was neither a pure representation of the Greek Revival style nor was it a typical expression of the style built by local builders. Instead, it was an adaptation based on the unusual topography of the site. [2] From three sides the house was three stories tall, but the west side was built into a hill, so it appeared to be only two stories. It also stood out in a neighborhood that was mostly made up of small to medium-sized frame houses.
The Potter–Williams House was a T-shaped structure with a gabled roof and a three-story porch in the reentrant angle. The gable ends featured a wide, molded frieze. The first floor was composed of battered stone walls while the upper floors were brick. All of the windows were rectangular, and those on the second floor were taller than the windows on the other floors. The lintels were all composed of stone, and were probably influenced by the Italianate style that gained in prominence in Davenport after the Civil War. [2] Another decorative feature that was popular in other Greek revival houses in the city was a narrow molding strip that suggested a frieze. The hood over the west entrance of the house reflected the American Craftsman style.
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns. A gable wall or gable end more commonly refers to the entire wall, including the gable and the wall below it.
A porch is a term used in architecture to describe a room or gallery located in front of the entrance of a building forming a low front, and placed in front of the facade of the building it commands. It can be defined more simply as a "projecting building that houses the entrance door of a building or as a vestibule, or hall.
In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous, and perhaps the most elaborate. This style is typical for the Persians.
The George Clapp House is a historic house at 44 North Street in Grafton, Massachusetts. Built about 1835, it is the town's only significant example of high-style Greek Revival architecture, with temple treatment on both the front and one side. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 21, 1997.
College Square Historic District is a nationally recognized historic district located on a bluff north of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The district derives it name from two different colleges that were located here in the 19th century.
The Phillip Worley House is a historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The McManus House is a historic building located in the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The Wupperman Block/I.O.O.F. Hall is a historic building located just north of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Schmidt Block is a historic building located in downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Bridge Avenue Historic District is located in a residential neighborhood on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983. The historic district stretches from River Drive along the Mississippi River up a bluff to East Ninth Street, which is near the top of the hill.
The Louis Hebert House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Isaac Glaspell House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. Isaac Glaspell was a local grocer in the 1870s and 1880s and had this Greek Revival house built during that time. It is a two-story structure that features a front gable, three bay façade, with a single bay side wing. The exterior is composed of brick with stone and wood trims. The house is a vernacular form of the Greek Revival style found in Davenport. The notable details on this house are the bracketed eaves and the flat arch window heads that are topped by keystone brick hoods. The house had at least one wrap-around porch porch that was believed to have been added around the turn of the 20th-century. It may have replaced an earlier porch, but it is no longer extant. The house sits on a raised lot. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The Israel Hall House is a historic building located on the east side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. By the time this house was built, Israel Hall had retired and was serving as the secretary-treasurer of the Oakdale Cemetery Corporation. He may have used it as a boarding house as well. The two-story brick house is a late example of the Greek Revival style. The side gable is influenced by the Georgian Revival as opposed to the temple front that is more typical of the Greek Revival. The round-arch window in the attic is typical feature found in Davenport residential architecture in this era. An addition to the back of the house was built around 1895. The house features a gabled roof, while the addition featured a hipped roof. The single bay porch on the front of the house replaced a full sized porch that was also not original, but replaced the original single-bay porch. The house rests on a raised lot and is set back from the street level. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984.
The Robert Henne House is a historic building located in the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. This Greek Revival style residence was built for Robert and Henrietta Henne in 1874. He operated the cigar stand in the post office. She continued the business after his death in 1885. The house followed a popular 19th-century style in Davenport that has some unique features. The gable-end oculus is located on the side of the house as opposed to the front. On the front are a pair of round-arch windows. The windows that face the front of the house feature keystone window heads that drop to small molded corner blocks and are flush to the brick. Molded panels are found on the porch frieze and on the soffits and reveals on the main entrance. The house has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The Gustov C. Lerch House is a historic building located in the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.
The John Littig House is a historic building located on the northwest side of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The Gothic Revival style residence was built in 1867 and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984 and on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties since 1993.
The Thomas Murray 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 1984.
The James Smith 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 1984.
The James Brown House is an historic building located in Riverdale, Iowa, United States. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982.
The Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa, United States, was built in 1859. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 as a part of the County Courthouses in Iowa Thematic Resource. In 2012 it was listed as a contributing property in the Montezuma Downtown Historic District. The courthouse is the second building the county has used for court functions and county administration.
Brammer Grocery Store is a historic building located in the West End of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The two-story, brick, Greek Revival style building is an example of a traditional local house form adapted to small-scale commercial use. It features a plain façade, a diamond-shaped light in the gable, and keystones over the second floor windows. John Brammer opened Brammer and Son, a grocery store, in this building in 1885. He joined with Louis Ott in 1895 and they added hardware and paint to their offerings. The store was renamed Brammer and Ott. The building has subsequently housed other business ventures over the years.
The Joseph Schertz House is a historic house located on Illinois Route 116 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Metamora, Illinois. Built in 1862 for area pioneer Joseph Schertz, the house is an example of a Greek Revival styled I-house. The two-story house is composed of a central hall and stairway with a room on either side on each floor, the typical I-house floor plan, and is topped by a side gabled roof. Key Greek Revival elements of the house include its six-over-six windows with stone sills and lintels and its frieze board and cornice below the roof.
The Letovsky-Rohret House is a historic building located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. This simple two-story wood frame structure largely embodies the Greek Revival style with its side gable roof, entablature window and door heads, boxed cornice and plain frieze, and its pedimented attic vents. The tall windows on the first floor and arched windows on the main door reflect elements of the Italianate style. Built in 1881, the house originally faced Van Buren Street, but it was turned to face Davenport Street in 1919 and placed on the eastern end of its lot so two more house could be built there.