Hilltop Campus Village historic residence sold to local businessman

The purple Hilltop Campus Village banner that has been displayed from a second story window for many months will soon be taken down. The Hilltop Campus Village sold the property at 1028 Harrison to Andrew Wold, President of Alliance Contracting, L.L.C..

Wold has specific plans for the property, intending to turn it back to a single-family residence. "I am pleased to partner with HCV on yet another project and am excited to get this project underway! This home has great potential and I plan on bringing this home back to life again.", he said.

Members of the HCV project team were also pleased. Robert Lee, HCV Board of Directors President, said, "From the time we receiced the property as a donation, we wanted to proceed carefully to make sure it was sold to someone who would honor our mission of restoration and revitalization. We are satisfied that Mr. Wold has the knowledge, passion and financial capacity to do this project correctly."

The house is known as the George W. Smiley house. It was built in the late 1860s and is a contributing property to Davenport's College Square Historic District, which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. The district contains three of Davenport's most prominent landmarks: Trinity Episcopal Church, Central High School, and the Parker-Ficke home. It has in it many examples of Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Beaux Arts and Romanesque Revival architectural styles.

Director Scott Tunnicliff was pleased by the opportunity that presented itself. "This wasn't the sort of project that comes along too often, so we wanted to do it right. We appreciate very much the donation of the property made to us by Wells Fargo Bank, and the opportunity it allows for the new owner to help further enhance the district. But for the donation, the efforts of our project team and Mr. Wold, this very likely could have become a liability for the area, or face demolition."

The HCV put together an application for people to make an offer on the house, and to tell what their intentions were for its re-use, and demonstrate they possessed the ability to devise and implement a plan.  The application stipulated that any intention of demolition would not be acceptable to the HCV.

Mr. Wold has a number of projects on his plate, but intends for this to be gotten to pretty quickly. "Timing for the project was another criteria in reviewing the application, said Tunnicliff. "We couldn't have this just change hands and then have nothing happen. We wanted to make sure this liability would be turned into an asset for the district."