Davenport City Hall

Davenport City Hall is the official seat of government for the city of Davenport, Iowa, United States. The building was constructed in 1895 and is situated on the northeast corner of the intersection of Harrison Street (U.S. Route 61) and West Fourth Street in Downtown Davenport. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and on the Davenport Register of Historic Properties in 1993.HistoryDavenport started to outgrow its previous city hall, which had been built on Brady Street from 1857-1858. The role of city government expanded during the mayoral administration of Henry Vollmer (1893-1896). Among his major achievements were several public works projects. Streets were paved in the older sections of the city and developers laid out new subdivisions around the perimeter.In 1895, in the midst of a deep national economic depression, Davenport built an ornate new City Hall. The cost was about $90,000 — an astronomical sum at that time — and the City constructed the new building without issuing any municipal bonds. Local legend has long suggested that the city retired the debt so quickly by taxing the city's brothels, but the fines levied against the brothels accounted for only between $7,000-$9,000 per year, just a portion of the financial windfall the city reaped in the mid-1890s. The bulk of the funds came from a new state law (the "mulct tax") which applied to the city's 150 illegal saloons and amounted to around $50,000 per year. This tax allowed for construction not only of City Hall, but also paved streets and a new sewer system, and from 1902–08, the city eliminated its property taxes altogether.