Plan for grand opening in a grand house

The Friends of Hauberg Civic Center Foundation will have a grand opening of the restored Carriage House at the historic Hauberg Estate on Friday, June 30.

The community event will be held from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., at 1300 24th St., Rock Island, with free tours of the 1st and 2nd floors of the Carriage House. Free activities will include a Carriage House video, docent-led tours, the Carriage Haus Bar open for purchase of beverages and Hauberg Stables Gift Shop open for shopping, flyers and estate brochures.

Susanne Denkmann, heiress of the Weyerhauser-Denkmann lumber business, and John Hauberg, a farm boy turned lawyer, joined their philanthropic and social interests when they wed in 1911 and built this beautiful estate.

At that time, the Carriage House (across from their mansion) was important in running the property. It housed an automobile, carriages, horses and a pony, garden supplies and equipment, storage, housing space for temporary workers and a 2,600-square-foot apartment on the second floor, according to the Hauberg Estate website.

In 1956, after the death of their parents, Catherine and John Jr. donated this Prairie-style masterpiece to the city of Rock Island.

After years of sitting vacant, the Carriage House was in serious need of restoration. The Friends of Hauberg board of directors re-imagined the 8,000-square-foot Carriage House across the lush front lawn from the mansion, and it’s once again becoming an integral part of the estate.

The Friends of Hauberg Civic Center Foundation (formed in 2016) is a nonprofit organized for charitable and educational purposes to oversee the preservation and sustainability of the Hauberg Estate, Mansion and Gardens.

$600,000 in Phase 1 renovations

The Carriage House renovations (done over the last four years) are Phase 1 of a three-phased capital campaign to support sustainability of the estate. The first floor of this phase is now completed and includes the Auto House event and classroom space, the Carriage Haus Bar and the Hauberg Stables Gift Shop.

The project cost was supported by the city giving $100,000 from the CDBG fund, $250,000 from federal ARPA funding, and Friends of Hauberg Civic Center Foundation raised $250,000 through grants, private donations and volunteer hours.

“It’s finally come to fruition,” Friends of Hauberg executive director Deb Kuntzi said Wednesday of the completed work. “It’s everything I could have imagined.”

The Phase 1 work included:

• New boiler, and new floors in auto house and carriage house.
• New concrete floor in vestibule which also was enclosed.
• New plumbing and electrical on first floor.
• All new light fixtures and ADA bathrooms.
• New fire suppression system.
• All windows were changed from plexiglass to glass and windows were restored, such as replacing broken wood that had to be milled to match the historic look.
• Carriage House doors were repaired to become functional.

The second floor 2,600-square-foot apartment work will begin as funding becomes available this year for renovation into an Airbnb, Kuntzi said.

This is Phase 2 of their capital campaign and “right now, we are getting new proposals for plaster work, air conditioning, refinishing the floors and painting, because they are a few years old at this point,” she said Wednesday. The planned Airbnb will be called “Andrew’s Place” in honor of the Hauberg driver and gardener (Andrew Rietz) who was with the families for 50 years and it was his apartment, she said.

The apartment is 2,600 square feet, with three bedrooms, one bath, living room, dining room, kitchen, pantry, laundry room and loggia (Italian word for “a gallery or room with one or more open sides, especially one that forms part of a house and has one side open to the garden”), Kuntzi said.

“We are hoping, if funding prevails, to have it open by next summer (2024),” she said, noting they plan to raise between $60,000 and $100,000. The apartment could require a fire suppression system that would add an extra $40,000 to the project.

For more information on Hauberg estate, visit its website HERE.

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