Cody Road Historic District
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Cody Road Historic District is a nationally recognized
historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...
located in
Le Claire, Iowa LeClaire is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States. The population was 4,710 in 2020, a 65.4% increase from 2,847 in 2000, making it one of the fastest-growing communities in the Quad Cities. LeClaire is considered a suburb and part of th ...
, United States. It includes 60 buildings along a nine-block stretch of
U.S. Route 67 U.S. Route 67 is a major north–south U.S. highway which extends for 1,560 miles (2,511 km) in the Central United States. The southern terminus of the route is at the United States-Mexico border in Presidio, Texas, where it continues ...
, Cody Road, the primary street through the town. The district contains Le Claire's main commercial district on the south side of the district and residential area on the north. The district has been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
since 1979.


History

The first settlers who came to the area that is now Le Claire arrived in the mid-1830s. Two towns were platted on the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
by the end of that decade, Parkhurst to the north and Le Claire to the south. The narrow strip of land between the two towns was called Middletown. Parkhurst and Middletown were incorporated into Le Claire in the 1850s. The economic life of the area was dependent on the Mississippi. Le Claire sits at the head of a stretch of river down to
Davenport Davenport may refer to: Places Australia *Davenport, Northern Territory, a locality *Hundred of Davenport, cadastral unit in South Australia **Davenport, South Australia, suburb of Port Augusta **District Council of Davenport, former local govern ...
that is strewn with rocks and was known as the Upper Rapids. with Knowledgeable river pilots were required to guide steamboats through the rapids and many of them lived in Le Claire. The home of William Rambo (430 N. Cody Rd.), who was engaged in this endeavor, is located in the district. Other industries included stone quarries and brickyards that were able to utilize the areas wealth of
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
.
Grist Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. It can also mean grain that has been ground at a gristmill. Its etymology derives from the verb ''grind.'' Grist can be ground into meal or flour, depending on h ...
and lumber mills were also an important element of the economy. The homes of John McCaffrey (208 N. Cody Rd.) and George Tromley Sr. (806 N. Cody Rd.), who made their living in the lumber industry, are located here. The Le Claire Marine Railway boatyards were established by Thomas Lancaster and Levi Chamberlin in the early 1850s. The boatyards and the accompanying Old Mill House (419 N. Cody Rd.) were bought by J.W. Van Sant in 1862. It grew to become the town's second largest employer after the river. J.W.'s son
Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...
made his living off the river at Le Claire before moving to
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
where he eventually became the state's governor. Samuel's house was located at 322 N. Cody Road. The decades at the end of the 19th century saw a decline in Le Claire's economic fortunes. The mills closed and the railroads replaced the steamboat as the primary form of passenger and commercial transportation. The forests of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin became depleted so the lumber industry declined along the Mississippi. Small-scale commercial ventures continued in Le Claire and the brick commercial blocks along Cody Road were built. The town itself declined in population from 1,121 in 1875 to about 700 by 1910. The town stagnated until the 1950s when the continued growth of the
Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...
down river turned Le Claire into a bedroom community of the larger metro area. By the late 20th century the houses remained occupied and in good condition, but the commercial buildings were largely empty and rundown. It was at this time that the town started to be transformed by new shops and cafes opening in the commercial area. The commercial district received a $6 million makeover by the city beginning in 2007. Forty-four new businesses opened between 2004 and 2014, and the population grew from 2,868 in 2000 to almost 4,000.


Architecture

None of the facilities that were associated with Le Claire's 19th century industries are extant. What remains are commercial and residential structures built between 1850 and 1900 and new construction. The commercial buildings from the 1850s and 1860s were built mostly of locally produced soft brick. The structures are narrow, two stories in height at street level, with either two or three bays on the main facade. They are capped by either broad, low-pitched
gable 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 aesth ...
or half-
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...
or a front-gable. For the most part, building foundations are from locally quarried limestone. The buildings on the east side of the street have exposed basements because the land drops steeply to the river at that point. The houses were built in either the
Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
style with symmetrical fronts and a gable roof, or in a
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
form of the
Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...
style with low hipped roofs and bracketed
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
s. The houses were constructed mainly in wood or brick, and rarely in limestone. Most of the commercial buildings from the later decades of the 19th century are brick Italianate structures that feature flat roofs and
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...
ted fronts. Some of them have metal cornices, which were popular in many Iowa commercial districts of that era. Houses from this period featured styles that were popular in the late
Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...
era: Queen Anne, Eastiake, Shingle, as well as the Italianate. There are also a couple of small
bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide verandas. Th ...
and plain, L-shaped front-gable houses. The tallest structure is the three-story Bard Hotel (207 N. Cody Road). The old Le Claire city hall at 201-203 N. Cody has a concave hipped roof,
pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
ed window hoods, and a decorative cornice. The former Presbyterian Church, located at 322 N. Cody Road, is the only historic church building in the district. It is a small frame structure that is four
bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
long with a central entrance tower on the front.


References


External links

{{Scott County, Iowa Historic Districts Le Claire, Iowa Italianate architecture in Iowa Historic districts in Scott County, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Scott County, Iowa