Thursday Doors & Tour

The architecture tour from Tuesday through the older buildings of Davenport, Iowa, had many amazing doors, but I think my favorite one was once the First National Bank building which now houses the US Bank Center. It very much fits with the Thursday Doors prompt.

The bank was built in 1924, this year marks its 100th birthday. Smith and Childs, an architectural firm from Chicago, and architect O.H. Breidert, designed this beautiful building. While it is still a full use bank, it also displays a section of the history of the area with photographs and historical information. But its brass door…

Inside the archway of the door are raised sculptures reflecting the Renaissance Revival period.

Here is a closeup of one of the figures. Amazing detail.

When you first enter the entrance alcove of the bank, there is a wall display on marble slabs of important people from the area, from Chief Blackhawk to Bix Beiderbecke.

When you go into the main lobby of the bank, the ceiling may make you forget what century we now live in.

Check out these closeup details of the ceiling.

I find it heart breaking that this era of design is no longer affordable to build plus not having the artistic skill with stone they had back then. So enjoy your older buildings while they are still around and appreciate the talent it took to create them. Don’t get me wrong, the architectural talent we have today is just as amazing, it just doesn’t have that artistic flare that I love.

In closing, I remind you of the value of kindness in all that you do. Your gentle smile may be just the thing that a hurting person needs to carry on with the day.

Thursday Doors, 9/5/19

I enjoy doors and windows. That is where the character and soul of a building reside. Norm’s weekly challenge of doors shows so may beautiful doors. You catch yourself as you drive around town – “Oh look at that door’, where before you may never have noticed. Come join in on Norm’s Thursday Doors and see the beauty and creativity of builders and other bloggers photographs.

Mine this week jumps from churches, to homes, to businesses…ending with a cemetery.

Church doors…

A couple of businesses….as you can tell, I am a fan of stonework

Homes…

And last but not least the forgotten door of too many years gone by…with a tree growing in the mausoleum’s roof…

As you see the interesting doors around you, remember when you go through one, you enter into the world and life of that building. Respect its story to be told and share it if possible. Just like people, they all have a story, so share its story of beauty and remembrance and always be kind.

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Revitalized Doors, Thursday Doors

It’s Thursday and a day we join in with Norm and our shared loved of doors. What wonderful stories the imagination can have as we look at some of the really old one. We have an area that we are trying to revive bu calling it a historical neighborhood. We aren’t all neighborhoods historical that were built over 100 years ago. Now that I am older, 100 years doesn’t seem that long ago.

This neighborhood has it usual transitions of original fine homes that got neglected and people left. Then other people moved in not understanding the value and letting it decline further then sold for “pennies” to those who could barely afford the “pennies” who showed no love to the homes only to leave them abandoned. Now investors who see the value in the wonderful homes have moved to revitalize them and bring them back to their glory days. I have seen this pattern i n every city. We are currently fighting for the beauty and value of our courthouse.

But today I offer you glimpses of revitalization of this neighborhood showing the condition of how some still are but the transition of the revitalized ones.

The beauty of this one is hidden by the tall grasses but as it sit on the hill surrounded by massive oak trees, it was probably a beautiful porch to sit on and enjoy the rockers.

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I love how this garage was turned into a fun living space and the owners understood the value of doors as he worked on repairing and staining one.

I though these two interesting. The larger door is a revitalized firehouse. No sure if it is a working firehouse or now a home. It’s still a neat door. The other picture is a set of doors we pass daily that I have always wondered “how many garage doors do you really need?”

Other pictures below show continued revitalization of this neighborhood. Some houses quite striking and some kind of plain but still reflecting new life.

As you look at these wonderful doors, remember we ourselves are also beautiful doors. Some of us older still with many wonderful stories to tell; some with a face lift trying to fight that ever present aging factor and some with new parts as some parts just no longer work properly. But we all can be beautiful in what is on the inside of that door if we allow our hearts to shine forth the kindness God once intended us to show. So even if your door seem a little worse for the wear, open your door and shine forth the gift of kindness that God so wants to to share.

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Door Around Davenport

It is interesting to walk around the old section of town just north of the business district. There are still many homes well maintained from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and their doors are always interestingly combined with the wonderful porches we no longer see.

Some interesting takes on architecture of the day on a small income home.

The last one shown with the drive up is actually the back door. The front door you could not see for the steep hill and tall grass. I would hate to cut that hill.

On the business side we have a couple of interesting doors with stone faces which always bring in different architectural flares.

Come along and join in on Norm’s Thursday Doors. Door show an interesting personality of designer and resident.

Doors always open up a new world of opportunities. There was a song on the radio this morning telling that God put a million, million doors on this earth and that one of them is you. We are all doors that can shine out the love from above that was given to us to share and reflect God’s love and kindness. So open your door and shine forth in kindness.

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Sun, Fun …and Doors

What a beautiful day today. Blue sky, bright shining sun, temp in low 70s, flowers are smiling, birds are singing, actually, they are raising Cain because I am out of food, I will fix that shortly. But the flowers and Mimi are happy as Mimi basks in her favorite morning spot.

But today is Thursday and Norm’s day for doors. I have been waiting since August of last year to be able to get out and look at all the marvelous older homes in our area. Some have some really interesting doors, so today, I am walking…

IMG_20190523_142246 — Not a lot of walking but some

I found interesting other things for later post as well but today is door day. It is always interesting how government building are these massive stone buildings with columns and such. Then when the building gets deemed no longer useful, they tear it down. Such a waste. We are fighting tearing down our courthouse. I didn’t take any pictures of it as its boarded up. But below is the county office building.

Then the side door to the bank which I thought interesting.

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Then I went down to the river front to see where I could possible set up face painting for the 4th. I took a couple of pictures to show how we on this side of the river survived Flood ’19 vs. the other side of the river, where I work. We built a wall in ’65 after a bad flood then during the historic flood of ’93 we were safe as we were this year, which beat out the flood of ’93. No wall still on the other side.

Even from here you can still see the flood waters surrounding the trees along river park that are still surrounded by water. They are expecting another rise with all this rain. Oh, well…on to houses and doors.

I could have taken pictures all day but I do have grass to cut so I didn’t want to wear out my legs. To start with, I think we should all have gargoyles on our front stoop…right?

IMG_20190523_130814 — Dare anyone to take the package from the front door

Other doors of neat vintage eras are below. Wonderful history and architecture.

I miss the era of big front porches and neighbors visiting while sitting in rockers and such. It was a more simple time I guess. But was it?

I don’t think the basic principle of love thy neighbor has ever changed. Jesus was over 2000 years ago and that was part of the great commission. So I challenge you to remember the gentleness of the seemed eras gone by and bring forth the gentle kindness that seemed to be more prominent than now. Let the kindness of Christ shine through you to brighten someone else’s day.

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