NOW: Riverfront warehouses full of artists and galleries.
THEN: It was a bawdy era at the turn of the century in Bucktown, Davenport
Iowa.... setting the tone for the rest of the nation.
Riverboats...Gamblers...Entertainers...and the 'Ladies'.
The
eastern end of downtown Davenport, historically known as Bucktown, was
infamous at the turn of the century for its speakeasies, dance halls
and German music pavilions, and home to a documented forty-two brothels in
a two block area. The reputation of Bucktown traveled across the
country and garnered national media headlines as the "wickedest city
in America."
Bucktown was also notorious, however, for it's culture.
The strong German heritage of the community formed the identity of
Bucktown and its infusion of the arts into the everyday. Art and
music, for the common man, was central to the German way of life.
In
1856, the German Strasser Union Marching Band of Davenport was formed.
When the Tri City Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1916, it was the
twelfth in the nation but having drawn two-thirds of its membership
from the Strasser Marching Band, it is debated by many as the oldest
music organization in the country to have formed a symphonic orchestra.
Truly,
Davenport was built on the arts. Before there were paved streets and
running water to homes in the city, there were opera houses with 40
foot domed ceilings where Chicago operatic troupes traveled on
horseback to perform. The most famous of these was the Burtis Opera
House, which still stands on the north side of the Bucktown District.
Davenport
was home to the nation's first municipal art gallery formed in 1925 by
German, Charles Ficke, and was the foundation of the Davenport Museum of Art, now known as the Figge Art Museum.
In Bucktown,
the music of the people was played by the era's finest musicians,
including Louis Armstrong and the legendary Bix Beiderbeke.
This
renovated structure, known as Bucktown Center for the Arts, was the
heart of the music and life of Bucktown, known as 'Brick' Monroe's
Summer Garden and Dancing Pavilion, or by many as Brick's Dime-A-Dance
Saloon.
by Karen Anderson
Bucktown Scholar
Scott County Historic Preservation Society
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