Special Collections
563/326-7902
Davenport Public Library
321 Main Street
Davenport, Iowa 52801
Phone: 563.326.7832
Fax: 563.326.7809
TDD/TTY: 563.326.7843
1920-1945 - Prosperity and Adversity,
- June 14, 1921--The Davenport board of education changes the name of East Intermediate School to Phebe W. Sudlow Intermediate School
- 1921—Mel Foster, Sr., starts up a one-man real estate firm
- February 18, 1922—WOC Radio makes its broadcasting debut. Owned by B. J. Palmer, and operating from the campus of Palmer College of Chiropractic, WOC is the second licensed station on the air.
- 1922—The Parker Building at the corner of Brady and 2nd Streets, is completed, and the M. L. Parker Department Store takes up residence. There are seven floors of merchandise, and payments made at the counters are sent to the cashier room through pneumatic tubes.
- 1922—The Municipal Natatorium, Davenport’s only city swimming pool for the next thirty or so years, is built at the corner of Min and Front Streets.
- February 1923—The First National Bank of Davenport, at 2nd and Main Streets, is destroyed by fire. The bank is rebuilt on the same site, and later merges with the Union Bank and Trust Company.
- 1923—The Victor Animatograph begins manufacturing the first 16mm film projectors and cameras in the country, which are at first sold locally in the Quad-Cities. The availability of this equipment (and the 16mm film produced by the Eastman Kodak Company) for private use eventually sparked a craze for home movies, and the development of standardized film, cameras, and projectors for the non-professional.
- 1924—Two primary schools, Garfield (904 East 29th Street) and Hayes (622 South Concord Street) open to serve children in kindergarten through fourth grade. Students go to other schools to complete grades 5 and 6.
- 1924—WOC Radio is a carrier of the first chain program in the country, connecting with WEAF, a New York City station 1,300 miles away.
- 1924—Construction is completed on Union Station, a combined passenger station serving the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad; the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad; and the Davenport, Rock Island and Northwestern Railroad.
- 1924—The Riverside Power Station begins operation for Davenport’s United Light and Power Company
- 1924—B. J. Palmer opens Little Bit o’ Heaven, a rock sculpture garden on the campus of the Palmer School of Chiropractic, to the public.
- 1926—Rockingham School (1220 Minnie Avenue) becomes a part of the Davenport School System.
- 1926—Motorized buses begin to fill the transportation needs of Davenport.
- 1926—WOC Radio becomes an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company
- 1927—The St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nurses is completed. It is named French Hall after Colonel George Watson French, who donated the money for the building.
- 1927—The Bechtel Trust Company moves to 230 Brady Street in Davenport, former home of the Scott County Savings Bank
- 1928—Davenport takes over an airstrip along North Division Street, naming it Cram Field after Ralph W. Cram, publisher of the Davenport Democrat and enthusiastic amateur aviator who learned to fly at the age of 62.
- 1928—The Davenport Country Club is organized.
- 1930—B. J. Palmer forms the Central Broadcasting Company, synchronizing WOC Radio with WHO Radio out of Des Moines.
- August 6, 1931—Bix Beiderbecke dies of pneumonia in New York. His body is brought home for burial in Oakdale Cemetery in Davenport.
- November 25, 1931—The RKO Orpheum Theatre opens in the Mississippi Hotel at 106 East 3rd Street. The movie Suicide Street played opening night.
- 1931—The Mississippi Hotel opens at 106 East 3rd Street. The building and business were financed by George Bechtel
- 1931—A bank panic sends hundreds of Davenport and Scott County citizens to take their money out of the American Savings Bank & Trust and the Union Savings Bank and Trust.
- 1933—Construction is finished on Lock and Dam No. 15, the first of twenty-six locks and dams across the upper Mississippi River.
- 1933—WOC Radio hires recent college graduate Ronald Regan as a staff announcer.
- 1934—WOC Radio affiliates with the Columbia Broadcasting Company
- 1934—The Iowa Liquor Commission opens its first Davenport store in the old Roddewig Building at 409-411 Harrison Street. Because this store is so close to City Hall, it is nicknamed the ‘City Hall Wine Cellars’.
- 1935—Bechtel Trust Company changes its name to First Trust and Savings Bank.
- May-August 1936—A drought and heat wave causes 97 deaths in the Quad-Cities. Temperatures reach 111.3 degrees on July 14th.
- 1936—The Kimberley Road Outerbelt Bypass (US Highway 6) is completed
- 1936—The last streetcars in Davenport are retired.
- 1936—Davenport celebrates its centennial anniversary, with the theme ‘Davenport Marches On.’ As part of the celebrations, a Centennial Mural, created by Helen Hinricksen, is installed in the Wallgreen’s Drug Store located in the Union Bank and Trust Building at 2nd and Main Streets.
- 1937—The American Institute of Commerce (AIC), a business training school, is established in Davenport at 617 Brady Street.
- 1939—Marycrest College, the women’s ‘branch’ of St. Ambrose College, is established by the Sisters of the Congregation of the Humility of Mary.
- 1939—Scott County hospitals have 92 cases of smallpox among them, leading Dr. John Sunderbruch to begin campaigning for an isolation hospital.
- July 12, 1940—The Centennial Bridge, the first four-lane highway to span the Mississippi River, opens, connecting Rock Island and Davenport.
- 1940—Rockingham School closes.
- 1940—Taylor Elementary School closes as a regular school, but is retained for the education of special-needs students.
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