The Dillon Memorial is a historic structure located in LeClaire Park, near downtown

Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...

, United States. It was 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 ...

(NRHP) in 1983 and on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1993. (Click on "Historic Preservation Commission" and then click on "Davenport Register of Historic Properties and Local Landmarks.") It is commonly referred to as the Dillon Fountain.

History

The structure memorializes

John Forrest Dillon John Forrest Dillon (December 25, 1831 – May 6, 1914) was an American attorney in Iowa and New York, a justice of the Iowa Supreme Court and a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Eighth Circuit. He autho ...

who was a Davenport attorney, an

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a chief justice and six associate justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 ...

Justice and a judge on the

United States Circuit Court The United States circuit courts were the intermediate level courts of the United States federal court system from 1789 until 1912. They were established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, and had trial court jurisdiction over civil suits of diversit ...

. A

bequest A devise is the act of giving real property by will, traditionally referring to real property. A bequest is the act of giving property by will, usually referring to personal property. Today, the two words are often used interchangeably due to thei ...

after his death on May 6, 1914, specified the construction and location of the fountain. with The memorial anchors the south end of Main Street and faces the Civil War Monument twelve blocks to the north on top of the bluff. It was also meant to be a focal point and dramatic terminus for the street, which connects LeClaire Park with Vander Veer Park in central Davenport. Like the Civil War Monument, Main Street surrounded the Dillon Memorial. When the memorial was constructed from 1918 to 1919 there were no other structures on the south side of River Drive. The memorial was part of a major riverfront development program by the Levee Improvement Commission along with

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

and the W.D. Petersen Memorial Music Pavilion. It was at this time that the name of Riverfront Park was changed to LeClaire Park. In 1922 the Municipal Natatorium was built on the west side of the street from the memorial, and a year later the Lend-A-Hand Club was built to the east. The Lend-a-Hand building was also listed on the NRHP. In the late 20th century the memorial returned to its original state when the other two structures were torn down. Main Street was then closed south of River Drive and the area was incorporated into LeClaire Park in 1997. At that time the brick plaza was built around the fountain.

Architecture

The Davenport Levee Improvement Commission sponsored a design competition for the memorial.

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

artists Franklin and Arthur Ware won the competition and designed the memorial in association with Paul Schultz. The Dillon Memorial is a Neoclassical structure built in Bedford, Indiana limestone. The style is typical of monuments and public buildings that were built at the time. It also reflected Arthur Ware's training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The monument is an upright, fluted column surrounded by a circular basin, which functions as a fountain. A lantern sits on top of a platform capital.

Bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

panels of lion heads and garland swags decorate the base of the column. There is also a bas-relief likeness of Judge Dillon on the column.

References

External links

{{Historic Davenport structures Buildings and structures completed in 1919 Neoclassical architecture in Iowa Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Davenport, Iowa Davenport Register of Historic Properties Monuments and memorials in Iowa Fountains in Iowa 1919 sculptures Concrete sculptures in Iowa Sculptures of lions in the United States 1919 establishments in Iowa Fountains on the National Register of Historic Places