East Village Mansion Tour

It was a beautiful late summer Sunday afternoon. Bert and I went to the "Mansions Tour" in Davenport's East Village. First up -- the Burrows Mansion. Once the Grand Dame of the neighborhood, the mansion was divided into apartments, then boarded up. (the building next door is still abandoned.) But a woman named Lolita spent 30 years restoring the mansion...

In 2009, Lolita sold it -- here's Bert -- with one of the new owners...

Another stop on the tour -- the Antoinne LeClaire mansion. Here I am with Karen Anderson -- the woman who single-handedly saved the house from certain destruction. Along the way, she became a devoted historian of the amazing Antoinne Leclaire -- who, at 14, became a famous Indian translator. He went on to negotiate treaties and earned an incredible fortune. He was extremely generous and gave land in Davenport, Iowa to churches, parks and amazing public spaces. He brought bridges and railroad development to the area. Because he had no descendants, his contributions were mostly forgotten...

Until Karen came along...

Here I am, on the narrow one-way staircase up to the third floor of the LeClaire mansion -- it's a lot of narrow little steps...

BUT THE VIEW IS SOOO WORTH THE TRIP..!

ANOTHER GREAT DAY, BERT...we were having so much fun -- the news crew from the local ABC affiliate, WQAD-TV -- used a clip of us on the evening news!

My cousin called and said, "I recognized the Hey Rita tote before I even knew it was you..."