American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Building (Davenport, Iowa)

	American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Building
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	529 Main St.; Davenport, Iowa
Coordinates	41°31′32″N 90°34′31″W / 41.52556°N 90.57528°W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1902
Architectural style	Romanesque
MPS	Davenport MRA
NRHP reference No.	83002396
Added to NRHP	July 7, 1983

The American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Building was a historic building located on the hill just north of downtown Davenport, Iowa, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.^[1] The building has subsequently been torn down.

History

The American Telephone and Telegraph Company built this building in 1902. Ten years later the Iowa Telephone Company joined them in this facility. The two companies moved across Main Street not long after that and AT&T eventually bought out Iowa Telephone.^[2] The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, used the building as their clubhouse for a number of years. They were replaced by a labor union who used the building for their local headquarters.

Architecture

The building was an example of the Romanesque Revival style made popular by Henry Hobson Richardson. Completed in 1902, it featured smooth brick walls, round-arched windows on the second floor and a decorative cornice in brick above. The lower level had large rectangular windows with sills and lintels of roughly-worked sandstone that contrasted with the smooth brick.^[3] The corner of the building at Sixth and Main Streets was angled and contained the main entrance into the building.

References

^ ^a ^b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ Martha Bowers; Marlys Svendsen-Roesler. "American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Bldg". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-12-01. with photo
^ Svendsen, Marlys A.; Bowers, Martha H. (1982). Davenport where the Mississippi runs west: A Survey of Davenport History & Architecture. Davenport, Iowa: City of Davenport. p. 6.1.