Davenport Community of Christ
4221 Brady Street Davenport, IA 52806
(563) 391-5598
Sunday School: 9:20 AM
Worship: 10:30 AM
Pastor: Rick Enright (Contact Rick)
In the early twenties the Davenport congregation came into being. The members purchased a building on the corner of Grand Avenue and Central Park. Names like Lindsey, Hinkle, Chamberlain, Richards are some of the most frequently recalled.
As the depression worsened and the congregation felt less able to finance the operation of the building, they looked to merge with the Rock Island congregation. This partnership continued well past the 1940’s. During this time one unique organization came into existence. Today we know it as RIMODA Credit Union. It has been an organization of saints helping saints for more than six decades. At last count, there are not more than three such groups in the World Church.
The number of members living in Davenport started to increase with people moving into the area to work on Arsenal Island. So, once again, the Davenport Saints began looking for a place to meet. They rented several rooms in the old Lend-A-Hand Club at the foot of Main Street. This building had two important attributes: a swimming pool and a gum ball machine. Nancy Hinkle would readily tell you that her church was the gum-ball church.
This location was used for a couple of years until an inexpensive building was found, in 1953, at Sixth and Grand. The building needed a lot of work; but the young enthusiastic members thought they were equal to the task. They barely had the termites under control and the chipping paint scraped when they began casting their eyes on land at the then northern edge of the city. They purchased the land and began saving for a future building. The future came more rapidly then they anticipated. Another denomination, in Davenport, had ordered a factory assembled church from a church builder in Colorado. The bricks, windows, plumbing fixtures, and partially constructed super structure were shipped on railroad flat cars. When the church arrived, it was discovered that the lot, for which it was destined, could not accommodate the finished building. The contractor advertised “CHURCH FOR SALE” $3.50 a square foot. Again the Saints shook their piggy banks, and launched an each-one-pledge-one campaign; within a few days, they had bought themselves a church. With great celebration, hard work, and thankfulness they were able to move into a new building, sell the old one all within a year’s time. 1963 was a year to remember with pride and joy.
Such rapid growth, in property and membership, caused some of the leaders to become intoxicated with the idea of continued growth. So within a period of two years, the concept for planting a Bettendorf mission was spawned. Only in retrospect, will we be able to determine whether this was a prudent use of resources both financial and physical.
