National Register of Historic Places 1998 - Rock Island, Illinois

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Click on the link above to read about the origins and history of the Great Unveiling

Recent Great Unveilings

The Broadway Historic District unveiled two homes on April 19, 2008.  The first was the historic Jackson House at 824 20th Street, followed by 820 22nd Street.  Below are the photos from this event.  Thank you to all the volunteers who turned out for the Unveiling. 

 

 

820 22nd Street Before and After

 

 

 

 

824 20th Street Before and After

 

 

Follow the progress of the Jackson House Restoration! Resident Diane Oestreich will be tracking this project with a series of articles in The Rock Island Argus, the first of which appeared Sunday, April 13.  Click Here to view the first article

More Photos from the 2008 Unveiling

(Click on each photo to view full size)

 

The Great Unveiling 2007

 

 

Mark McVey purchased 840 22nd Street, the property next door to his residence at 836 22nd Street, to renovate and turn back into a single family home.  To take it a step further and encourage others to take the plunge into restoring their historic homes, Mark even created his own web-site dedicated to tracking the history and progress of this project.  To see his journal and look at a complete photo album of the Unveiling, go to http://kiltedsanta.googlepages.com/home

 

 

Here's another recent unveiling from a few years earlier.

Volunteers from Broadway, Rock Island Economic Growth, and other historic neighborhoods gathered to participate in the "Great Unveiling". This annual event encourages homeowners to remove artificial siding from their homes.

This home at 1049 17 Street, a circa 1900 Queen Anne whose personality was obscured by a layer of aluminum siding, was one of the recent Broadway projects. Workers appeared with hammers and crowbars in hand to unveil the home. There were ooohs and aaahs as windows and decorative trim hidden for many years by siding were uncovered.

 

 

 

A ripple of pleasure went through the crowd of onlookers and volunteers as ornamental detail was revealed on the gable on the south façade.  It was in great condition.  Shadows of the skirting, window drip ledges, and window ornamentation, which had been removed from the house in preparation for the aluminum siding, generated discussion of restoration and multi-colored paint schemes.

 

 

 

The high point was the revelation of the very ornate front façade. The aluminum siding had buried intricate fish scale shingles, a starburst, and stylized relief decoration.  The boxed-in front porch was reopened and a simple arch and original beadboard was discovered.  The formerly uninteresting structure once again sparkled with Queen Anne personality.  The discovery of lost architectural beauty and wood in good condition is the hope of each Unveiling.  This home had an abundance of both!

 

 

 

After the "Unveiling" shows what a difference restoration and preservation can make in bringing a house back to the way it was originally designed.

Click Here to read about the origins and history of the Great Unveiling