Rock Island Preservation Society
April 19, 2011
RIPS Membership Meeting
Tuesday April 19, 7 pm
Deere-Wiman House, 1105 8th Street, MOLINE
1. Call to order: Diana Alm, VP, called the meeting to order shortly after 7 with about a dozen present.
2. Minutes: Summary of April meeting: Emailed by Diane Oestreich.
3. Vice President: Pam Saunders, Diana Alm: Meeting sites and plans for May, June, and July meetings we discussed. After the date for the awards presentation is set with City Council, Pam will arrange for us to use the basement conference room at City Hall for a social meeting/reception. We will all bring a snack to share. In June, we will plan a social meeting and tour at First Lutheran Churchand invite the Moline Preservation Society. Jeanie Dasso will coordinate with the church as well as asking RIPS members to bring food. Unless there is a conflict with church plans, we will plan on the regular meeting date of the third Tuesday of June. In July, we will have an outdoor potluck at Hauberg. Clayton has tables and chairs and we’ll all bring food. Last year, we began at 6 pm rather than 7 and we should do the same this year to avoid darkness. It was suggested that Bob Towler be invited to talk about the Hauberg plantings. A suggestion for a future tour meeting was the West End Settlement building if that is possible.
4. Treasurer: Daryl Empen sent his report. We have a total of $7765.06 in our account, of which $4397.65 is special donations for the Villa Arch project. Our regular funds total $3367.41. The main activity this month was deposit of membership dues and payment of $40 for Landmark application (see below)>
5. Corresponding Secretaries: Clayton Peterson, Martha Dismer Martha will need material by early May for a quarterly newsletter. We can include details about our upcoming meetings, a reminder of dues, and a story about our single award.
Diane moved, seconded by Pam that we provide Clayton with $20 to help defray his numerous mailings for RIPS – cards and stamps. Throughout the year, Clayton makes sure that our communications are gracious and timely. The motion passed unanimously.
6. Business items (report only if needed and not necessarily in this order. Priority – Award presentation and Highland ParkTour
Endangered buildings; Preservation projects
Landmark application for West End Settlement House- Diane The application was approved by a Preservation Commission subcommittee to be presented at a Public Hearing to the full Commission on Wednesday, April 27. RIPS has paid the required $40 application fee. This building is called the Belgian American Brotherhood building by many, as that was its use (with a large sign) between 1931 and 1981.
Clayton noted that Linda has been paying the storage fees for the Villa Arch out of her own funds.
Awards - At the March meeting we had agreed to give only two awards. Since then, we have discovered that one “winner” is not finished, so an email survey of those present at the meeting showed a consensus that we should wait till next year for that award. This means that we have only one award this year. Alma Gaul is writing a story. Diana Alm has prepared a story for the Argus and Diane will follow up on having it published. Diana took photos for both newspapers. Clayton will contact the City Clerk requesting that we be on the Council agenda for May 16. When that date is finalized, Clayton will send a formal letter to the awardees and Pam will make the plans for a snack potluck “meeting/reception” in the basement conference room after the conference presentation. Members are asked to bring a food item. Daryl will create the award and Linda will do the presentation.
Archives & “Junk” - Linda has catalogued many items that she has stored. One set of laminated Old Chicago Tour placards is being stored by Walter Lilius and another set will be given to individual homeowners by Clayton when the weather is nicer. The yellow ribbon markers for the driving tour book were disposed of because they have writing on them and there is no use for them. An awards spreadsheet started by Randy Smith has been updated to the current time, although a few years in the mid 1990s may still be incomplete.
Neighborhood Partners - Diana Alm said the “green task force” has been replaced with one another task force that has taken on a new “Study Circles” program about refugees. The program was developed by
Membership Renewal – Diane Oestreich. We have received dues for 52 members so far, with new mailings very slow. Martha can include a reminder in the May quarterly newsletter.
Hauberg Walking Tour Booklet –. Jean Dasso, Linda, Daryl – no update. Editing still needs to be done.
Website & Transitioning- Pete Cone, Diana Alm Pete has updated the Postcards from Home section, breaking it into several topical pages so that it loads more quickly for those with slow connections. He also removed date-able material from the home page, so the site will not look out of date even if it isn’t kept up regularly. Diana reported that the transition from Pete to her and Joomla will not cost anything. She also reported positively on some technical items that only the two webmasters understood. Diana said Pete deserved great thanks for all of his website work.
Highland Park Tour – Date/Time: Sunday, May 22, 2011, 12–3 pm, Starting Location: intersection of 17th Avenue and 21st Street; Master of Ceremonies: Terry Anderson. We will advertise 12 – 2:30 so that everyone who comes by 2:30 will get a full guided tour.
Linda has emailed the guide itinerary. Jean Dasso, Mike Hammer and Ardo & Carolyn Holmgrain will have lemonade and cookies near the Cozad House, which is currently rented. Visitors will be able to take a peek inside, but will not be able to tour the house. This tour feature will not be advertised. Linda will contact realtor Jon Loquist who has listed the Wagner House on the corner of 22nd Street and 18th Avenue to see if he would be interested in holding an open house that day. It was also suggested that Linda (or someone) contact the owners of the Looney House, which is for sale, to see if they want to have an open house.
Previous volunteers for tour guides include Diane Oestreich, Walter Lilius, Daryl Empen, Clayton Peterson, Linda Anderson, Martha Dismer (?). New volunteers are Diana Alm and new member Leslie O’Ryan. Diane will forward the tour itinerary to them and Linda will coordinate a practice run-through to include the new volunteers, Clayton, and any others.
Name Tags: Clayton will bring name tags with the RIPS logo and plastic holders (and a felt tip pen) for the tour guides to wear.
Information Table: This will be set up at the Cozad house by the refreshments. Linda will also ask Delores Richards and Wanda Esping from Highland Park. We need more RIPS Promo Cards. Terri Cone, who created them, has retired so can no longer print them. She will forward a PDF file to Clayton to see if he can do it. Otherwise, we’ll ask Daryl if he can print them at low cost using Terri’s Publisher file. We also need Looney Tour booklets and Highland Park tour booklets from the Preservation Commission, a Donation Can, and a sign-in s These booklets will be given out near the refreshment area AFTER people have taken the tour. Another suggestion would be to have the tour guide get copies at the end of the tour and hand them out to his/her group.
Neighborhood Involvement: Linda sent a "save the date" to the neighborhood and will deliver another announcement in May. Sue Swords, a RIPS member and resident of the neighborhood, will display an enlarged/laminated copy of the original Stauduhar 1906 drawing of the front of their house.
Publicity: Quad City Times – done; will appear May 16; Neighborhood News – done; Argus - Diane will submit something; newspaper calendars – Diana will submit these. Since the website is not being updated regularly, we will not include the tour here. Diana suggested that we also create a Facebook page. She will do this. Open House:
Other Business: A brief discussion of the Historic District protections was discussed as it affects the interior of Highland Parkhomes from inappropriate remodeling. The building restrictions of a district only affect the exterior of a building, not the interior. Efforts to convince homeowners not to make inappropriate and often devaluing renovations must be done on a voluntary basis.
The Landmarked Streckfus House, 908 4th Avenue, was also discussed briefly. Diane said that Vince Thomas had discovered that black musicians often stayed there when they appeared in town in the 1930s and 40s. It was a Browns Funeral Home at the time, and the black performers were not permitted to stay in local hotels. These included major “names” such as Louis Armstrong and Nat Cole. Vince will try to find more documentation to for this fact. It increases the historic significance of the home and ties it to our local black history. Walter Lilius has talked to the new owner (of a few years), who likes the house a great deal.
7. Announcements, Events, & General
QC Times story about new congregation in former Immanuel Lutheran Church: http://qctimes.com/news/local/article_8b0e11a4-5cf4-11e0-8449-001cc4c002e0.html
Pam Saunders noted that the murals which were removed from the altar area were painted on canvas and she thought were signed. She speculated that they might have been done by Olof Grafstrom, who did other church paintings in the area. She will try to find the info in the church archives.
Watch Moline’s Barb Sandberg on WQPT's program "The Cities” as she discusses Moline's preservation efforts over the past 25 years. It ran Thursday evening for the first time and will be repeated Sunday evening at 5:30 pm and again that evening at midnight. Next week it will be available online at http://www.wqpt.org/thecities/
Moline's segment of the half hour program was the first 15 minutes. The taping was non stop with no changes in the final print. They did add photos of some of the buildings she talked about. The Moline Preservation Society is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. On the web page, this will be episode 20 of “The Cities.”
Stroll through Springtime, 7 am to noon Saturday, April 30, Watch Tower Lodge, Black Hawk State Historic Site, 1510 46th Ave.(Blackhawk Road). 7-9 am trail walks to identify both migrating and resident birds (binoculars suggested), 9 am refreshments, including wild violet jelly, “Pictures of the Park” photo contest winners, and 10-12 trail walks to identify wildflower. FREE 788-9536 www.blackhawkpark.org
8. Adjourn on a motion by Terry Anderson, seconded by Pete Cone
Diane Oestreich
309 788-1845
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