Swedish history

The area surrounding East 6th Street, where the city hopes to spark new housing construction, was a predominantly Swedish neighborhood in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Swedish residents established two churches known today as Grace Lutheran Church and Grandview Baptist Church.

Grace's original house of worship, 637 E. 6th St., has been converted to a three-plex. Grandview's original building, 700 E. 6th St., has been in religious use as Kingdom Generation Church.

Grace was organized March 25, 1883, as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church. Its church building on East 6th Street was moved there in 1888 from 4th and Iowa streets, where it had been dedicated in September 1883. The church has its roots in the First Lutheran Church, Rock Island.

In 1924, Grace held its first services in its new home at 1140 E. High St., where it remains today. Its original building was converted to a residence in 1926, according to city directories.

Leadership in the church was rapidly passing out of the hands of the founders to a new generation eager to communicate the same Gospel in the English language, a church history states. Changes had also taken place in the neighborhood in which the first church stood and one by one the families which had settled in the neighborhood of their spiritual home moved to other parts of the city. Thus it was considered advisable to seek a new location for the church building.

As the congregation became Americanized and conducted its services in English, the church was renamed Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. The oak pulpit from the 1883 church stands in the narthex of the current house of worship.

Grandview Baptist Church has its roots in the Swedish Baptist Church of Rock Island, the first church of what would become the Baptist General Conference, now known as Converge Worldwide. Members of the Rock Island church living in Davenport dedicated their own house of worship at 700 E. 6th St., the northeast corner of Grand Avenue and East 6th Street, on Nov.11, 1883.

The church had been built in 1856 at the corner of 11th and Scott streets as the home of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and moved to East 6th Street as a gift from the Presbyterian church.

It is a very neat substantial house of worship, the Davenport Gazette reported on Oct. 28, 1883. It is situated on a hill with a grand scenic panorama at its front, the Mississippi, Island (Arsenal), Rock Island, Moline and a large part of Davenport being in view.

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Swedish history