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Homes


Wagner House

904 23rd Street Postcards of houses are not easily found.  And when they are found, the pictured house is often unidentified or  has been demolished.  Relatively few house postcards were published, probably because most folks preferred sending a postcard of a public building rather than a private dwelling.  Only homes which could attract enough interest, … [ Continued


Frederick & Rose Titterington House

816 22nd Street  Although Real Photo postcards aren’t as colorful as their lithographed, mass-produced, counterparts, they are even more valuable to the architectural historian.  Even when they are badly faded as this one is, they accurately depict what buildings and their surroundings really looked like.  There is no fakery, no drawn-in trees or shrubbery or … [ Continued


Norrman House

4509 8th Avenue Many folks have shared their treasured Rock Island postcards for this series and this is no exception.  The Real Photo postcard of a house at 4509 8th Avenue comes all the way from St Paul, Minnesota, thanks to Robert Stumm.  Mr. Stumm is not only a postcard collector but he has also … [ Continued


American Foursquare

Address unverified  This Real Photo postcard is believed to show a Rock Island house, as it was included with many other Rock Island postcards that Robert Schroeder inherited from his grandmother, Emma Holtzer.  Handwriting on the back identifies it as the “McKay House,” although City Directory research couldn’t find a Rock Island McKay family living … [ Continued


E. A. Adams House

1712 12th Avenue  This is a “Real Photo” postcard that would have been custom made for the Adams family who owned the house.   Although caption indicates it is at 1712 12th Avenue, today its address is 1712 13th Avenue.  Around 1915, 11th Avenue in this Rock Island area was eliminated causing a few other avenues … [ Continued


House at 530 20th Avenue

This Real Photo postcard from Bob Schroeder’s collection has a special meaning to him because it shows his grandmother’s house, the same grandmother, Emma Holtzer, from whom he inherited a rich trove of historic photo postcards.   Since many of the postcards show scenes in the same vicinity, he speculates that his grandmother may even have … [ Continued


Sacred Heart Church

Fifth Avenue at 28th Street Over a century old, Rock Island’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Fifth Avenue at 28th Street has weathered its years very gracefully.  Indeed it takes a very close comparison of this early 1900s postcard with the church today to note any differences at all.  We could find only two. The … [ Continued


Rock Island Club (RNA)

226 16th Street  This postcard is identified as the home of the Rock Island Club, but it’s easy to tell that it was a home at one time.   Like many of Rock Island’s earliest residences, it was built near the center of town.  In the mid 1800s, our commercial area was located on First and … [ Continued

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