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Ben Vinar House, 2527 15th Street
Most Significant Unprotected Structures:
Unique stone Ranch style home with original garage door
Architectural Style:
Ranch
Construction Date:
1955
Architect/Builder: Architect, Unknown; Ben Vinar, General Contractor; John Litvin, Sub-Contractor
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This single story Ranch style home features walls of solid, variegated stone, in shades of pink, peach, green, and tan. While many Ranch homes often contained two or three different material veneers, such as brick and wood, relatively few were completely constructed of stone. On this house, only the tiny gable peaks contain vertical wood siding. The asymmetrical house has a shallow gable roof with low dormers intersecting on the west and south facades. There are deep eave overhangs. The windows have gray stone lintels and are placed high in the wall, a common treatment in Ranch homes. The walled stone courtyard and the enclosed screen porch bisected by fancy iron filigree posts were later alterations, but the wall was created by mason Gary Erickson to fit seamlessly with the original stone. The two-car garage is integrated into the main roofline of the house and has an original double-wide garage door with bullseye patterned panels.
Furniture store owner Sam Vinar was generous and purchased properties for his children. His son, Ben, also in the furniture business, began building this home around 1954, but would take several years to complete the project. Ben served as his own general contractor, hiring sub-contractors for much of the work. According to later owner Kay Coin, John "Jack" Litvin was one of the contractors, Litvin worked on many Ranch homes at the time and was known for his masonry work. Originally, the trim and garage door on the house was painted pink, then army green in the 1970s, and finally creamy tan at the turn of the 21st century.
Ownership passed back and forth between Sam and Ben for some years, but the home was vacant for a few years after the mid-1960s. In 1968, the home was purchased by Kay & Stanley Coin, who at the time was chairman of the American Bank, which had a single hilltop location. He and several other businessmen founded the bank in 1968. By the turn of the 21st century, the bank would grow to $300 million in assets and seven locations. Mr. Coin began his career in 1946 as a baker and truck driver for Coin Baking Co. of Rock Island. The bakery later became known as Harvest Day Bakery and was a division of Eagle Food Centers. Mr. Coin retired as president and division manager of Eagle Discount Supermarkets in 1983 and as chairman of American Bank in 2002. The Coins owned the home until 2003, raising their family there, and happy to be in close proximity to Rock Island High School.
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