Our Neighborhood
 Neighborhood Association President's Leadership Gathering 2005 |
KeyStone Neighborhood is the embodiment of traditional, Midwestern values like hard work, friendliness, and cooperation. The area has a rich history, and every day its residents show their willingness to address the challenges of the present in order to create a brighter future.
There are six designated sub-neighborhoods within KeyStone: Brooks Grove, College Heights, Columbia Park, Edgewood Park, Fairview, and Parkview. The City of Rock Island (http://www.rigov.org) offers booklets for both a Driving Tour and a Walking Tour featuring KeyStone homes, schools, and churches.
One of KeyStone's major assets is the wide variety of historic architectural styles that characterize neighborhood homes. Most of the major styles, popular in American architecture from the 1870s to the 1940s, lies within its boundaries. KeyStone offers a showcase of diverse styles including American Foursquare, Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival, Queen Anne, Shingle, Vernacular, Colonial Revival, Prairie, Craftsman, and Tudor.
Three Rock Island Historical Landmark homes, located in the KeyStone neighborhoods, are the Conrad Lindberg House, the Anna Olsson House, and the Charles and Jane Borg House.
Dr. Conrad Lindberg House (circa 1895)
Located in the Fairview area of KeyStone at 3826 7th Avenue, the Dr. Conrad Lindberg House was built in 1895 and is an outstanding example of the Queen Anne style. The house is located within sight of both the dome of Augustana College and the spire of what was once the Seminary Chapel.
This style was popular in the United States from the 1880s to the 1910s and is characterized by a corner tower and full-width front porch. Classical columns with spindlework railings adorn the porch, and fishscale shingles decorate the gable. The narrow roofline with small brackets separating the front gable from the lower floors of the house is also characteristic of the Queen Anne style. On the east side of the house is a stained glass window inscribed with Lindberg's personal motto, Ora et Labora, (Work and Pray). A stained glass window on the west side reads, Post Tenebrae Lux (After the Shadows, Light). The exterior of this home has been faithfully restored based on an original photograph.
Dr. Conrad Lindberg was a well-known professor of Systematic Theology at Augustana College and Theological Seminary from 1890 to 1930. In 1902, he was honored with a knighthood, the Royal Order of the North Star by the King of Sweden.
Anna Olsson House (circa 1900)
Located at 3912 8th Avenue, the house was built from the assets of the estate of Olof Olsson. Dr. Olsson, a Lutheran pastor who immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1869, became the third President of Augustana College and Theological Seminary. His will provided that a home be built for his children. This house, which is pleasingly located on one of the many hills in the KeyStone neighborhood, was probably completed in late 1900.
In 1888 his oldest child, Anna, became the second woman to graduate from Augustana College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She was fluent in Swedish and French as well as English and became a prolific writer.
The Anna Olsson House is one of the most unique homes in KeyStone because of its simplified Shingle style that is unusual in smaller homes. This style, which developed along the eastern seaboard of the United States in the 1880s, is most often associated with large summer homes designed by major American architects. However, this small house, with its wide shingles framing the steeply-pitched front gable and deeply sloped roof held up by classical Tuscan columns, is an intriguing variation on the more common pattern. The interior of the house still has most of its original features, including built-in bookcases and a tiled fireplace.
Charles and Jane Borg House (circa 1930)
Located at 1203 45th Street, this house, influenced by the Prairie style of architecture, was the home of Charles Borg. Borg began with humble roots in Sweden, but developed his talent for inventing to become a millionaire through the Borg-Warner Corporation. Borg was brought up on a farm, trained as a cabinetmaker, circumnavigated the globe twice as a youthful ship's carpenter. After coming to the United States, he worked in a Rockford furniture factory. When he came to Moline, he worked for a time for Deere & Mansur. However, he soon opened his own factory where he manufactured many items for which he held original patents, including a wheel sanding machine, a stave trimming and grooving machine and machines for the manufacture of porch columns, and plow shares. Probably his most famous invention was the sliding clutch for automobile engines.
The Borg house is an especially attractive and well-balanced example of the Prairie architectural style from the early 20th century often associated with Chicago architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright's ideas quickly spread throughout the Midwest. This large, two-story home exhibits several features of his style: the hip roof with wide overhanging eaves, the paired sash windows with vertical panes of glass, the large front entry porch with simple squared columns, and the horizontal band of stone (stringcourse) beneath the first floor windows that goes across the house emphasizing the horizontal dimensions of the building. The original two-car garage even has a corner chimney, indicating the garage was heated.
