Rock Island hopes its visitor center will be destination point

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By Dustin Lemmon | Friday, February 16, 2007 11:21 PM CST | () comments

(QUAD-CITY TIMES FILE PHOTO) The Centennial Bridge Commission building is being transformed into a new visitor’s center that is expected to be opened later this summer.

Rock Island plans to open a new visitors’ center at the base of the Centennial Bridge this summer, but it’s still unknown how many visitors it will draw.

The city is using an $86,000 Preserve America grant to the transform the old Centennial Bridge Commission building, 215 15th St., into a destination point that will focus primarily on the Mississippi River, and include display cases about river transportation and the history of local bridges.

Rock Island city planner Jill Doak thinks the center will be a popular weekend attraction for residents in bigger cities who are looking for a weekend getaway.

“It in itself, we hope, will become a primary destination given its location on the river,” Doak said. “This ought to be a neat weekend trip for the Chicago area and Des Moines.”

While many Quad-Citians take the Mississippi River for granted, most visitors are excited to see it. Doak said the center’s proximity to the Centennial Bridge would allow quick access to views of the river and the center would likely sell buttons with messages such as “I rode over” or “walked over” the Mississippi River.

Joe Taylor, president of the Quad-City Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the location of the building is ideal for a visitor’s center.

“It would be along a major route,” he said. “It’s right on (U.S.) 67 and it wouldn’t be far from (Illinois Route) 92. It’s one of the first buildings you’d see coming into Rock Island from Iowa.”

Doak said the center, which should open sometime this summer, will employ one full-time staffer and a volunteer. Initially, it will be open mostly on weekends for out-of-town visitors, but the hours could expand, she said.

It may be challenging for the center to draw big crowds this year because many annual tourism publications already have been printed without any mention of the new locale in Rock Island, Doak added.

Greg Champagne, Rock Island’s community and economic development director, said the city will monitor the center’s success and see how it performs.

“We’ll experiment and see what activity it generates,” he said. “Some visitor centers aren’t as busy as they have been.”

According to Taylor, visitor centers are not as busy because their roles have changed over the years, especially with the addition of the Internet. Anyone with a laptop computer can pull up travel information and maps online, he explained.

“The Internet has impacted how visitors get information about a destination,” he said. “Twenty years ago the only place to get information was at a visitor’s center.”

Now, visitor centers have to provide more than directions, he said.

“We’re trying to make this more than a visitor center,” he said. “How can we transform this personal point of contact to the electronic age?”

Other elements that could draw visitors would be a museum and bicycle rentals for the bike path, Taylor said. It also could be a local artist exchange, but he noted those are ideas the city must decide on.

The center will already include some elements of a museum. Doak said the federal grant will be used to build display cases for the visitors center that will showcase the Centennial Bridge, as well as others in the community, including the Government Bridge.

“It’s sort of one of the hidden jewels of the community,” Doak said of the Government Bridge, noting the swing span and dual rail and auto usage make it unique.

The center also will feature information about historic neighborhoods in Rock Island, including details about the Chippiannock Cemetery, which will be getting a small kiosk as part of the $86,000 grant. Doak said the city wants the cemetery and its monuments and views to be another tourism draw.

“The challenge has been getting people to go there,” she said, adding a display at the visitor’s center can help.

The center also will have information about other tourist attractions around the Quad-Cities, Doak said.

While the grant will help with planning the layout of the new center it can not be used for the construction of a new handicap accessible restroom. She said the city will fund that portion of the renovation and may invest in other building improvements in the future.

City officials had discussed opening the center by Memorial Day weekend in hopes of drawing some out-of-town travelers, but Doak said it will not be ready until later in the summer.

“There is a lot of work to do in the building so I think that’s a pretty ambitious goal,” Champagne said of opening by Memorial Day.

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.

Preserve America

Rock Island will use $86,000 in grant funding to help open a new visitor’s center in the old Centennial Bridge Commission building this summer. The Preserve America grants provide funding to cities that are designated as a Preserve America Community. The funding is used for projects that promote heritage tourism, education and historic preservation planning.

The Rock Island Centennial Bridge Commission used the building at 215 15th St., from 1941 to 2004, when the commission dissolved after ownership of the bridge was turned over to the State of Illinois. Rock Island was approved as a Preserve America Community in 2004.