At noon on August 11, 1914, Belle Schmidt married Fred J. Barr at St. John’s Methodist Church, where they were both members. The Hostetler Studio took several photographs of the bride and groom and the wedding party.
According to the marriage announcement, which was published on page 10 of the Davenport Democrat on the same day:
“The bride was in a gown of white charmeuse made with a short train and trimmed in Chantilly lace. Her long wedding veil fell from beneath a small Juliet cap that was caught with clusters of flowers, and she carried a bouquet of lilies of the valley.”
The flower girl, the only attendant named in the announcement, is Alicia Barr, the groom’s niece. It was a good thing the photographer took at least two shots of the wedding party—in the first one, the blur shows that little Alicia lost her grip on the basket!
But the second one was perfect (the lady in the back row has her eyes open, too!)
The reception was at the Outing Club—it appears that the father of the bride was a member—which had decorated several of its largest tables with white and pink flowers for the seventy guests. The bride and groom, it is to be noted, left early in a new automobile.
After the honeymoon, the Mr. and Mrs. Barr lived at 108 Dover Court.
Hi,
I really am enjoying reading your blogs on historical Davenport. Hey I bet you can tell me what the Annie Whit structures are being used for now. What does the old library look like now? I remember how sad it made me and my mom when it closed. We then had to go to the downtown library to check out books if I remember correctly. It always felt strange after they made a pool at the bottom of the snow hill too. I wonder how many people died over the years on that hill. I can remember a guy almost running me over with his sled when I got to the bottom one year. I don’t think there are any hills in Davenport as thrilling as that one was. I would love to hear from you if you could be bothered to send me an email.
Hello! We’re glad you like our posts!
The Annie Wittenmyer branch library closed in November of 2005, and was ‘replaced’ by two new library facilities on Fairmount Street and on Eastern Avenue.
The building that housed the library has been renovated somewhat and the Annie Wittenmyer Complex is now the home of the Davenport Junior Theater and Family Resources Inc., which is helping troubled youth much as the Wittenmyer home did in its last decades of operation.
(we hear from unofficial sources that the sledding at Annie Witt is still pretty good, though you still have to be careful to avoid the pool!)
i was a boy tht grew up at annie whittenmeyer, left in 1966 adopted, been gone since, came back 5 years, ago, to see it, lots of memerious for there, wish had a renioun of the people that lived there