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Postcards From Home


Centennial Bridge

Foot of 15th Street  We drive across it, many of us on a daily basis, and mostly we don’t pay it much attention.  But looking down from the top of the bluff, or from either side along the street or riverfront trail, it’s easy to see why Rock Island’s Centennial Bridge has become an icon … [ Continued


Chicago Burlington & Quincy Station

East Side 20th Street at Second Avenue By any standard, this is an impressive building. And what is even more surprising, is that, for a few years, there were two similar stations in downtown Rock Island. The other one, the Chicago, Minneapolis & St. Paul Station, stood at the end of 17th Street near the … [ Continued


Long View Park – Stag Hill

Long View Park – it was originally spelled with two words – was probably the most “postcarded” place in Rock Island, with Spencer Square running a close second.   You probably have seen many of the Long View postcards, but you might be surprised by this rare one.  It shows the heavily antlered deer statue that … [ Continued


Ferkel Couple

518 23rd Avenue There is a surprising story behind this simple postcard.  An elderly couple is posed behind a fence, their small house in the background.  A gate, cobbled of scrap wood, separates neatly shaped pickets on one side from wire on the other.  Like other Real Photo postcards, it may be one-of-a-kind and it … [ Continued


Grant School

11th Avenue & 7th Street Back to school!  September is a time for beginnings, traditionally with youngsters bearing cedar-scented Ticonderoga No. 2’s and new Goldenrod yellow-sheeted tablets beginning new school year in a new grade, with a new teacher. While year-round – or nearly year-round — school means less free time in summer, there is … [ Continued


Edgewood Baptist Church

5th Avenue at 44th Street  This isl the tale of a little Rock Island church that, like a young child, just couldn’t sit still.  The story begins on December 3, 1905, when a new Baptist congregation with 41 charter members was organized to serve eastern Rock Island and western Moline.  A few days later, a … [ Continued


South Wind Motel

4300 11th Street What does it take to be a historic building?  According to regulations governing the National Register of Historic Places, the first requirement is a minimum age of fifty years.  By that standard, the South Wind Motel on this postcard now qualifies. Although many names have been used to convey the idea of … [ Continued


Memorial Heights Methodist Church

18th Avenue at 38th Street This Real Photo postcard of Memorial Heights Methodist Church is much newer than most postcards we write about.   Although we found it in the Special Collections at the Augustana College Library, it was originally mailed in 1959 by Don Wright with the message, “Your photos are in.”   Mr. Wright operated … [ Continued