Recreation and History Do Mix!

By Jack Fogel

Buildings registered as National Historic Sites are rather commonplace these days. Rock Island has the Hauberg Civic Center and Moline the Wyman House. Sterling, Peoria, Rockford, Springfield, etc., could also be added to the long list of National Register recipients.

It might be some time before new facilities are added to the list, with budget cuts receiving headline billing, such as the closing of HCRS and the elimination of Historic Site Grants. Those of us who have them should be thankful and in turn, use them to the best of our ability not only in providing a historic service to our community but as a recreational service center outlet. We have found that Historic Sites also tend to act as a catalyst to draw organizations and/or groups of organizations together for the purpose of raising money to continue needed facility restoration and preservation.

Rock Island's Hauberg Civic Center has done this and has become one of the key cultural and civic attraction points of the Quad Cities and surrounding areas. The old Hauberg Mansion is a significant example of the uniquely American "Prairie School" of architecture developed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Hauberg facility, although not designed by Wright, is the work of a close friend and advocate, Robert C. Spencer, Jr.

The 20 room brick home was built between 1909 and 1911 for Suzanne Christine Denkmann, member of the wealthy Wyerhauser-Denkmann lumber family. It was completed just before her marriage to John H. Hauberg, a prominent lawyer, and it remained the family's home for more than 40 years.

In 1956, the year of John Hauberg's death, the Hauberg's two children donated the 10 acre estate to the city and its Park and Recreation Department for public use and in 1973, "Hauberg" was entered in the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the facility serves as a meeting place for over 300 different civic and philanthropic groups. It is also used for park, education, cultural and recreational purposes.

Approximately 40,000 individuals attend sponsored sessions and programs held in the Center annually. Due to the fact that school facilities have been limited for our Department's use because of austerity conditions, classes in all forms of culinary cooking, drawing, calligraphy, sewing, crafts, and activities for senior citizens, etc., are being programmed around and within the many cultural and social events of the Historic Center.

The "Prairie School" concept of architecture is unique in its design and few such homes built are open and available for public use and viewing. The style creates ground-hugging lines, evoking the flatness of midwestern prairies. Prairie architects reduced masses to geometric forms like squares, rectangles and triangles. Ornamentation typically consisted of floral abstractions or complicated geometric patterns. This was a severe break in old American architectural tradition that previously featured "gingerbread" dwellings that imitated castles and manors of Europe.

The Hauberg Mansion featured the tulip which was Mrs. Hauberg's favorite flower and architect Spencer liberally salted his Rock Island work with tulip designs. Stylized petals appear everywhere, in

Hauberg Civic Center — A blend of beauty and usefulness.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 16 May/June 1981

stained glass windows, organ screens, light fixtures, plastered ceilings and in the rich mahogany and walnut paneling and beams.

Light.... with grace.

The exterior landscaping was done by Jens Jensen (1859-1951), a noted landscape architect who planned the Cook County Forest Preserve around Chicago. Jensen also landscaped several homes designed by Wright.

The Hauberg grounds are patterned around the theme of a native Wisconsin woodland, and birch and evergreens are predominant in the planting scheme. Over 40 varieties of trees surround the 10 acre site encouraging a vivid display of spring wildflowers, attracting school sponsored field trips as well as interested adult nature lovers.

The Municipal Rose Garden, consisting of more than 700 bushes, is located on the front lawn of the Center's property, providing a beautiful display of color from late May to mid October. This added attraction began in 1964, through the joint efforts of the Rock Island Park and Recreation Department, the Woman's Club and the Tri City Men's Rose and Garden Club, and has met with greater response each year.

The gift of the Hauberg Mansion to the Department has had an effect on the annual budget operations but the benefit to the community and the historic preservation value, well offsets this financial responsibility. Room rentals are charged but the fees are minimal so as to encourage participation.

The lack of an "estate trust" to help maintain the facility has helped to solidify the community in a common cause. The Park and Recreation Department has encouraged local clubs and service organizations to participate in and create fund raising programs to help, not in the day to day maintenance responsibilities, but for the sole purpose of restoration and/or renovation of the Center.

Understated elegance results in a restful atmosphere.

The Woman's Club of Rock Island sponsors an annual antique show and sale where two to tour thousand dollars is raised and earmarked for Hauberg. The Altrusa Club has established a "Hundreds for Hauberg" campaign and annually provides two or three thousand dollars towards improvements. Area service clubs donate up to $1,000 towards specific projects to keep the Center's interior decor in excellent condition. Plus, several hundred dollars are received each year from interested citizens as individual donations. It is felt that this helps bring our community together, provides a "common cause" for sincerely interested people and in some cases, helps hold together entire clubs and groups who have adopted "Hauberg Civic Center" as one of the projects.

In addition to the above listed outside sources of funding, the Illinois Department of Conservation Historic Preservation Grant-In-Aid Program played an important role in funding major renovations to meet specific safety and fire codes, finance expensive and difficult structural rehabilitation plus aid in the delicate responsibility of interior restoration. The future of these funding sources looks very bleak for now and the next few years. Thus, the acquisition or preservation of valuable historical properties may be lost forever unless we as professional park and recreation people fight to maintain state and federal funding sources, invent and invite new means of funding, plus encourage philanthropic, industrial and civic minded groups to breach the way for "non-tax" funded income to carry the brunt.

Jack Fogel is Director of Parks and Recreation at Rock Island where he has been employed for thirteen years. He is a 1957 graduate of the University of Illinois. Jack has been active in I.P.R.A. affairs for nearly 20 years, presently serving as Board Member of the Administrative Finance Section. He is also a recent recipient of the I.P.R.A. Fellow Award.

Illinois Parks and Recreation 17 May/June 1981