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THE END OF THE VILLA

With one tap from the bucket of a backhoe, the remaining walls of the historic Villa de Chantal began to tumble to the ground in a cascade of dust and bricks, marking the beginning of the end for the storied building.

A small group of people huddled in front of the Villa, 2101 16th Ave. , to watch as demolition began to make way for the new elementary school the Rock Island-Milan School District plans to open on the site next summer. District leaders expect to complete work tearing down the main structure in 30 days, said Mike Oberhaus, Rock Island’s associate superintendent for operations and quality.

The district bought the building last year and has spent months working with the City of Rock Island and the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to have its historic designation rescinded, which they needed to move forward with the $350,000 demolition.

District officials finally received the written go-ahead from the state less than two weeks ago, leaving them little time to waste in order to stay within their original timeframe for opening the new school by August 2009.

It is unclear when construction of the new school will begin, after bids for the project came in at $14.1 million, which was $4 million higher than expected. Leaders are working to scale back the design of the school to bring it more in line with original estimates.

“It’s an important day for the community of Rock Island ,” said Rick Loy, Rock Island superintendent. “As you watch this, the emotions that go through you — I am surprised by the emotions.”

Loy and other onlookers described the event as “bittersweet.” Excitement ran high for school leaders who started to see progress in their plans for the district’s first new school in more than 30 years. However, as the shell of the building fell, memories created in the school it housed for decades came flooding back for some.

There was the annual tradition of the Maypole dance and crowning the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which girls walked in procession and picked petals out of huge mums, sprinkling them at her feet. Ornate classrooms provided hundreds of students through the years with stories of the friendships created and lessons learned in them.

“When I heard the (backhoe) turn on, I remembered how many times I walked through this front door with my dad,” said Ken Jaeke, the district’s director of instruction and assessment whose father also worked at the Villa.

“The fire sealed its fate. But putting a new school here is absolutely the best use for this land. It’s like it’s meant to be a place for kids. It always has been and will be in the future.”

The 14-acre Villa property was the site of a school run by the Sisters of Visitation from 1900 to 1978. The sisters left in the early 1990s, and the property was purchased in 1996 by Joe Seng, a veterinarian and state legislator from Davenport . The buildings had various uses until 2004, when the complex was purchased by Quad-City developer Chris Ales for conversion into housing for the elderly.

A devastating fire in July 2005 destroyed the original portion of the Villa, although rehab work on the virtually untouched Lewis Hall continued until November 2006, when it was derailed by financial difficulties. The school district purchased it in October.

“It had a significant impact on the lives of hundreds and thousands of people,” Loy said. “The sweet side is that you feel like it’s actually happening now. Finally, we are seeing some physical progress happening with the clearing of the site.”

Story by Sheena Dooley

QC Times

Illinois Ancestors