“The History of Moline's LeClaire Hotel" at the Moline Public Library -- November 16.
Wednesday, November 16, 6 p.m.
Moline Public Library, 3210 41st Street, Moline IL
Held in honor of the centennial of the building's creation, the Moline Public Library presentation The History of Moline's LeClaire Hotel will find Moline Preservation Society President Brandon Tidwell sharing a fascinating historical overview of the hotel's history, including its esteemed inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
With the building now housing apartments and known as the LeClaire Apartments, the LeClaire Hotel was built in 1922 on the east side of downtown Moline. At the time of its erection, it was the tallest building in the Quad Cities, and was named after Antoine LeClaire, the U.S. Army interpreter who served at the treaty signing ceremony that ended the Black Hawk War. He and his wife, the daughter of a Sauk chief, were significant landowners in the area, with most of their property just across the Mississippi River in Iowa, but they also owned land that became the original plat for the city of Moline. The LeClaire Hotel was a luxury venue that hosted celebrities, including Jack Benny, and U.S. presidents, among them John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. There was a ballroom on the 15th floor called the Top Hat that hosted tea dances that were accompanied by a big-band orchestra. The hotel closed in the mid-1980s and sat for 10 years without an owner before the Alexander Company bought the property and conducted extensive renovations from 1995 to 1996 to convert the building into an apartment complex.
The 15-story building is 168 feet tall, and is supported by a reinforced concrete superstructure. Its exterior is covered in brick, with stone covering the ground floor and the mezzanine, and the building features a symmetrical façade, a rounded arch entry flanked by rounded arch windows, belt courses, and deep projecting eaves with bracketing. The interior features elements such as the wood-paneled pier supports, checkerboard patterned flooring, mezzanine stairway marble treads, newel posts, rails, and balustrade ironwork, with the beamed ceiling and pilaster ornamental motifs executed by St. Louis artisan Fedrico Aquadro.
The History of Moline's LeClaire Hotel will be presented on November 16, participation in the 6 p.m. program is free, and more information is available by calling (309)524-2470 and visiting MolineLibrary.com.
