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1905 Scott County Atlas Camp McClellan Courtesy of The Rock Island Historical Society

Thanks to Reed’s forethought, the land he purchased from the Allens was formed to sell lots for new homes. The 1904 sales brochure highlighted the 2,000-year-old forest trees and seven miles of park boulevards where there is fresh air, no smoke, no old houses, no saloons and no little corner stores.

In fact, the traditional grid pattern you see in many developments at this time was abandoned and instead followed the natural curvatures made by the rolling hills. The streets focused on this park-like atmosphere with names like Wood Lane, Forest Road, Crestwood and Hillcrest.

In 1910, The Camp McClellan Improvement Association was formed in and the architect for the new neighborhood, Seth J. Temple, was elected President. He was a professor of architecture at the University of Illinois when he recruited Parke T. Burrows as his partner in 1904.

With this new Association, annual dues were $5 for the residents to pay for snow removal and mowing of the public parkways. This fee also paid the wages of a gardener to tend the flowers planted on the boulevards.

Social events within the association included chartered boat trips on the Mississippi River and an annual picnic held by the big oaks between McClellan Boulevard and Essex Lane.

Homes in McClellan Heights continued to be built through the 1940s. A 1918 sales brochure from the Ruhl and Ruhl Corporate Archives cited five reasons to build in McClellan Heights:

(1) It is the BEST part of town…. It is the one place in town where lots are sold at prices which make them double or treble in value in a few years.

(2) A choice lot on a paved street can be bought for $750 and as low as $500, 10 percent down, 1 percent monthly.

(3) They are restricted forever against anything but homes. Hundreds of otherwise beautiful residences in Davenport which have been ruined for desirable people because groceries, garages, drug stores and what not have been built next door. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN IN MCCLELLAN HEIGHTS for every lot is restricted forever against it.

(4) Because we are prepared to build you a home on the easy payment plan, so you can pay for it as rent. In no other part of town can you get better terms or receive more help getting a home started. In more than a hundred cases, in homes costing all the way from $2,000 to $8,000 we have helped our Happy Homeowners to get going.

(5) We have no houses to sell, you select your lot, your house plan, every detail. We simply find the money for you. It’s your home, not ours. McClellan Heights is a locality of individual homes. Each home is its owner’s ideal.

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