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Otto & Elizabeth Seidlitz House, 4141 12th Street
Most Significant Unprotected Structures:
Craftsman bungalow with high style and high integrity
Architectural Style:
Craftsman
Construction Date:
ca. 1917-1918
Architect/Builder: Unknown
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About one-third of Craftsman homes have side-gabled roofs. This one-and-a-half story house also has a gabled dormer and exposed roof beams and rafter tails. The additional depth of the house with the dormers in the back half lend a Tudor influence that is seen in the stucco and half-timber detailing. The windowis in the gables feature diamond-paned leaded glass. The massive single lintel above the paired living room windows on the south side reinforce the Tudor detailing. The porch is enclosed with wood screens and has a curved brick balustrade framing the front steps.
In the early part of the 20th century, Otto Seidlitz held a lease at Exposition Park, a race track and fairground located catty-corner to today's Douglas Park. He advertised his Edelweiss Beer in the souvenir program for the 1910 Exposition, which featured "aeroplane flights," running races, and automobile and motorcycle races, along with agriculture lectures and fireworks and Three-Eye (Iowa, Illinois and Indiana) league baseball games. Five years later, he and Pete Schieb, a professional racer from Moline, were both seriously injured when the latter's motorcycle, circling the track at 50 miles an hour, struck Seidlitz. For 20 years, Seidlitz lived in the home, working as an oil operator and as vice-president for a tractor equipment company before operating Edelweiss Lunch downtown with his wife.
From 1937 until 1960 the home was occupied by Henry and Mary Finkelstein. Henry was a partner with his brother Isadore Finkelstein in Finkelstein Bros. Coal and Fraser Coal and Ice Company.
In 1960, Milton Gersick and his wife Anita purchased the house. He owned the Children's Shop, located in the Cleaveland Building with a second store in East Moline. She later assisted in raising $100,000 on behalf of the St. Anthony's Auxiliary pledge to Franciscan Hospital, and served on the hospital's dedication committee in 1972.
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