Places of Interest in Davenport Iowa
Davenport Iowa is located on the Mississippi River and is the county seat of Scott county. The city was named for George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk war in 1836. It is the third largest city in Iowa, with a population of 99.685 in the 2010 census.
Davenport has two universities, Saint Ambrose University, and the Palmer College of Chiropractic, where the first chiropractic adjustment was done.
Davenport is the home of the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the Mississippi Valley Fair and the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival. There is a 7 mile foot race that is conducted during the Festival, called the Bix 7.
Davenport was the home town of Bix Beiderbecke, the well known jazz composer, piano player, and cornetist. It is one of the biggest jazz festivals in the entire country and always has a large attendance.
The festival is a four day event and attracts many of the well known bands and artists from all over the world. It is held during the first weekend of August in order to give notice of the passing of Bix on August 6, 1931.
The first railroad bridge over the Mississippi river was build by the Rock Island Railroad in 1856. It joined Davenport to Rock Island, Illinois and was a major connection with Chicago, Illinois, causing commerce with the windy city and the rest of the country across the Mississippi to rapidly develop. It also caused Davenport to become a major hub of commerce that exists to this day.
Davenport also sports a Class A minor league baseball team, the Quad Cities River Bandits, which is affiliated with the Houston Astros. There are also over 50 parks and over 20 miles of bike paths for walking and bicycling.
The neighborhoods of Davenport deserve special mention as they date back to the 1840s with excellent historical home designs of Queen Anne, Victorian and Tudor Revival. Many of the early neighborhoods were settled initially by German settlers.
The better homes are situated along the river with the panoramic views up on the bluffs of the river. Although the early German settlers were the working people of the town, many did well in business and were able to build these homes along the river.
One building downtown is the Davenport City Hall that was built in 1895 at a cost of $100,000, a fair amount of money in the day. It has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is a large 3 story structure that offers a wide array of office space and is a very handsome building indeed in downtown Davenport.
Other notable buildings include the Redstone Building which was the original flagship building of the Peterson Harned Von Maur business, and now serves as the home of the River Music Experience.
The Putnam Museum is a museum of history and natural science, and was one of the first museums located west of the Mississippi River. There are over 160,000 specimens and artifacts, and is a frequent destination for area students and the public at large.
The Figge Art Museum is the major art museum for Easter Iowa, and is one of the oldest institutions of art in the USA, and is considered to be the first municipal art gallery in the United States.
Davenport is well known for its fifty plus park areas that feature everything from picnic areas, fountains, indoor ice rinks, tennis, dog parks, 3 golf courses, fishing locations and many other recreational activities.
Davenport is a wonderful place to live and is a typical, easy-going Midwestern community where people seldom leave.