QC urged to help repair, preserve Deere-Wiman House

The men and women dedicated to protecting the Deere-Wiman House are asking the community to complete the final leg of a $3.2 million capital campaign to repair and preserve the 150-year-old historic home.  On Tuesday, June 13, William Butterworth Foundation board members held a news conference at 817 11 Ave., Moline, the former home of four generations of the John Deere family. Their mission was to ask Quad Citians to add $1.1 million to the $2.1 million already raised to repair water damage and other issues at the grand home. Money raised so far is thanks to a pair of grants and donations from key supporters, including Deere & Co., over the past 18 months, Butterworth Center & Deere Wiman House Executive Director Heather Calvert said. She also unveiled a video entitled "Honoring our Heritage" to promote the effort. The community fundraising campaign marks the first time in its history that the Butterworth board has asked the public to help fund the homes and properties that it manages. They are maintained and supported via a trust created in 1951 by John Deere’s granddaughter Katherine Deere Butterworth. Ms. Butterworth donated her home for community use. Following the death of John Deere descendant Pattie Southall Wiman in 1976, she also donated the Deere-Wiman House for public use and it was placed in the care of the Butterworth foundation. On Tuesday, Alexander “Sandy” Hewitt – her grandson and an honorary co-chair of the fundraising campaign – urged Quad Citians to support the campaign to protect the home he once played in as a child and where he celebrated many memorable Halloweens, Christmases and Fourth of Julys. “All of the homes are beautiful treasures and virtually irreplaceable and they are wonderful assets to the community,” the sixth-generation descendant of John Deere said. That includes, Mr. Hewitt said, providing $400,000 worth of free event space for community members to use each year. But “it’s not just the homes” that are important, he stressed. “To me it’s about the people that grew up here and the people that lived here: my ancestors.”

For example, he briefly told the story of how his Deere ancestors twice rescued the Moline National Bank from ruin – the first time during the Great Depression. “My great uncle and my grandfather stepped in personally and financially, and bought the bank, and they didn’t buy the bank for profitability,” he added. “They bought the banks to save the savings of all John Deere employees and quite frankly, of about half of the Quad Cities.“ The brothers would later step up to bail out the bank a second time after its controller was found to have embezzled.  For those reasons and more, Mr. Hewitt said, “It was one of the most exciting days in my memory when I first learned that my grandmother was going to add her house to the Butterworth Center and combine it and have this nice campus for all of the educational and arts programs and music programs and the things that you probably have come here to see and enjoy.”

Other capital campaign supporters leading Tuesday’s launch included longtime fans such as Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati. “As this Deere-Wiman House and the Butterworth House help tell the story of Moline they also tell the story of our families,” Ms. Rayapati said.  For her, that story dates back to when she and her family arrived in Moline 22 years ago and began exploring the city so “we could learn everything we could about the place we were now calling our hometown,” she added. Butterworth Center and Deere-Wiman have been a big part of her life and the life of her own children since then. “It really is an amazing space with an amazing history and I’m so glad all of you have kept it going and are now preparing for its future,” Ms. Rayapati told a crowd that included dozens of supporters and community leaders.  “Deere-Wiman and the Butterworth Center are part of our story and we need to continue to support them,” she added. In total, the William Butterworth Foundation owns and operates four buildings equaling 50,000 square feet of historic space and 11 acres of grounds. It uses them to provide services and programming to all Quad-Citians almost always free of charge. Even with careful stewarding  of resources by the board, however, those original funds are no longer enough to ensure the longevity of Deere-Wiman House, Ms. Calvert said. That conclusion was based in part on a 2017 historic structures review which created a roadmap to address such things as deferred maintenance, restoration, safety needs, and necessary improvements for community use.

As a result of that study, the current restoration campaign begins with a $500,000 investment in fundamental needs such as replacing damaged pipes as well as an aging boiler and repairing thermostats to make Deere-Wiman House safe from water damage and comfortable for community groups and visitors, the foundation said. Unfortunately, however, those dollars do not include money to fix the damage the leaky pipes, other water infiltration and aging have left behind. “The grand interiors of the Deere-Wiman House literally cause jaws to drop when visitors enter,” the capital campaign brochure said. “Wear after 150 years and water damage distract from the Deere Family story and the appreciation of the exquisite beauty and fine craftsmanship of the home.” A brief tour of the home Tuesday afforded visitors an opportunity to take a closer look and confirmed that assessment. It revealed holes in the carpets and plaster and wallpaper damage that were easily missed at first or even second glance. That damage, along with other problems created by age and the elements, will be addressed through a $610,000 investment in the building's interiors for such things as plaster and leaded glass window restoration. Additional investments in the building and grounds also are expected to include:

• $260,000 for climate and handicapped accessibility. It is designed to make the buildings more functional for programs, community groups and recitals. “We never want to turn away a visitor who is eager to learn about the Deere family or to participate in a charitable project,” the “Honoring our Heritage” fundraising brochure said.
• $570,000 for foundation repair and water mitigation. At- and below-ground-level water infiltration “wreaks havoc on the buildings,” the foundation said, and aged drainage systems and an asphalt driveway currently bring water directly to the Deere-Wiman House and Carriage House foundations.
• $415,000 for exteriors including examination and repair of stucco, stone, wood trim and wood windows to protect new interior restoration from future water damage. “Water is our enemy,” the brochure said. “The most important protection for the Deere-Wiman House is keeping water away from the building.”
• $380,000 for the grounds to restore and replace retaining walls, restore and re-roof the children’s playhouse, purchase grounds equipment and add native plantings.
• $165,000 for improvements to the Carriage House, which the center called “our most versatile and popular gathering place.” It’s home to day camps, Christmas crafts, quilters and a host of community groups.
• $250,000 for programming and outreach support. The money will be used to create new programs, improve existing ones, maintain the property “and continue the tradition of gracious hospitality and cultural expression.”

Why donate to the effort?

Preserving the Deere-Wiman House, the center and the grounds is important, the organization said, because “no other site tells the personal story of the Deere family and their place in history.” Deere-Wiman’s historical and community importance clearly resonated with the Jeffris Family Foundation of Janesville, Wisconsin. The Jeffris foundation’s mission is to motivate community leaders and families to support historic preservation in their own town, a goal they share with Butterworth Center and the Deere-Wiman House. The family foundation promised a grant of $330,000 if the community raised a $660,000 match. The Quad Cities group not only made the match, it did it in record time thanks to donations from John Deere corporation, current and former John Deere executives, Butterworth Center and Deere-Wiman House staff, board members and local community members. Thomas Jeffris, foundation president, told the Deere site fundraisers “It was a pleasure dealing with the people at Deere-Wiman House. In the 20 years I’ve run the foundation, no one has ever raised the money for our challenge grant as quickly as they have. I look forward to seeing the completed restoration.” So does Margarita Mojica, an alumna of the Butterworth trust board and one of the first donors to the current Deere-Wiman House capital campaign. On Tuesday, she shared her personal experience of the transformative impact the historic Deere complex can have on a visitor’s life. “I’m the daughter of immigrants who rarely ventured further than my neighborhood school or Stephens Park,” she said. But that all changed for the young immigrant Moliner when a “wonderful” elementary school teacher with a love of history took her class to historic Deere sites. “From that day forward I was hooked,” she said. She was also welcomed with open arms and the love of history that engendered led her to get her history and degree. She would later bring her children and students including a classroom of newly arrived immigrants, to tour the Deere sites.  “These two beautiful and majestic homes have been open to the community for decades and my husband and I want these doors to continue to open to new generations of young people and families, community and education groups,” she told the crowd Tuesday. Her story is not uncommon, added Ms. Calvert, a former board member who recently became the center’s executive director. “We constantly hear from community members about their special memories of Deere-Wiman House — such as performing in a piano recital or attending a Christmas open house with their family,” she said. “We’re excited that our campaign gives all our friends an opportunity to make donations of any size toward keeping Deere-Wiman House open for future generations of Quad Citians.”

How to donate

Donations to preserve Deere-Wiman House can be made online at www.butterworthcenter.com or by making a check payable to the William Butterworth Foundation (with a notation of “campaign”) and mailing it to Butterworth Center & Deere-Wiman House, 1105 8 Street, Moline, IL 61265.  For more information, go to www.butterworthcenter.com.