1600 29.5 Street

Designation
Rock Island's 100 Most Significant Unprotected Structures, 2009

Significance Statement
Concrete block house utilizing four differently patterned forms.

Architectural Style
Foursquare

Construction Date
1915

Architect / Builder
Unknown

Tour Publications
None

Unique Blocks
This concrete block Foursquare house, still unpainted despite its age, uses four differently patterned concrete forms. The concrete on the porch is dimensioned similar to brick, but is laid in a diagonal lattice pattern on both the porch skirt and railing. The bottom of the porch piers have a rubblestone pattern formed on the blocks. Most of the walls and the rest of the porch piers and columns use a traditional rough-faced block more typically seen on foundations. The top four courses, located just under the soffit, have a geometric, almost spider-web pattern to them. The only wood used on the exterior of the house is on the fascia board, the beadboard soffit, the porch deck and the porch steps. Deep, flared eaves edge the main roof and the dormer roofs.

It is likely this is a mail order or “kit” home. Sears, Roebuck and other American manufacturers sold these homes from the teens through the 1940s. They were delivered by rail across the nation. Although the concrete blocks in this example were probably cast on site or sold as precast blocks from the company, most mail order homes were frame construction.

First Owners
The home was built around 1915 and first occupied by Jhirard & Nettie Dizotell. He was a conductor for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, who five years later changed the spelling of his first name to Girard. They lived here for more than two decades.

Location
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