{"id":12275,"date":"2020-09-26T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2020-09-26T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=12275"},"modified":"2020-09-25T10:22:35","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T15:22:35","slug":"historic-places-riverview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2020\/09\/26\/historic-places-riverview\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Places: “Riverview”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This month Gilda’s Club of the Quad Cities, the non-profit Cancer Support Community, announced<\/a> they were moving out of the iconic mansion at 1234 East River Drive and would be relocating and expanding to 2 locations: Genesis West Campus in Davenport and Unity Point – Trinity Moline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s take a look at the history of this 150-year-old building and the families that have called it home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abner & Mary Emma Davison, 1852-1909<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Abner Davison was born on January 3, 1820, in Oswego Co., NY to Chester and Lorena Davison. He attended Fredonia Academy and graduated from Union College in Schenectady, NY in 1845. He moved to Davenport in 1852. He became one of the leading lawyers in Davenport, first with the firm of Davison & True (1854-1873) and later with Davison & Lane (1874-1900). Abner’s son Charles and James’s son Joe continued the law firm after their respective parents’ deaths, and the firm continues to this day as Lane & Waterman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abner Davison married his cousin Mary Emma Davison in January 1854 in Davenport. The couple had seven children: Ella, Charles, Alice, Frances (Mrs. C.A.) Ficke, William, Mary (Mrs. F.J.) Waltz, and Jessie (Mrs. W.R.) Weir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Emma Davison was born on February 28, 1835, in Cooperstown, N.Y. She died in Pasadena, California on February 28, 1909. Abner Davison died at his home on May 17, 1900. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Davison home was built in the mid-1850s on Cottage Avenue (street name changed to Front Street in 1867, and River Drive in 1934) between Bridge & College Avenues in A.C. Fulton’s Addition to East Davenport and was platted as “Riverview.” It was originally a 2 story Tuscan Italiante style house made of brick with hipped-roof, tall narrow windows, a main entrance porch with fluted Doric columns and pilasters, and an ornate Victorian Gazebo near the southwest corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Davenport Democratic Banner, August 20, 1852<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n