It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since It also played an important role in the civic and cultural life of the northwest Davenport German community.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn โ was a teacher in Berlin who started outdoor physical education classes in Over the next three decades gymnastic societies known as Turnvereins opened in many German cities. The societies also served as gathering places for people who desired democratic reforms in the governments of the various German states.
They supported the revolution that began in and when it failed they fled to the United States, and many came to Davenport. He stated in at the Turner's first large public event that the local society would fight against nativism and the domination of the church. It would also work to promote freedom, education and well-being for all people. Many of the early members also had a desire to return to the German states to continue the revolutionary struggle.
They expected any potential member to become an American citizen before joining. They also participated in the annual Fourth of July celebrations. At the centennial celebration in , however, they stayed true to their anticlerical convictions and left the procession when a prayer was added to the festivities.
As time went on, however, their radical attitudes subsided and they gradually abandoned their hopes of returning to Germany. In the organization changed its name to the Davenporter Turnverein and in it was changed to the Davenporter Turngemeinde. With the second wave of German immigration in the s, the number of Turner societies in Davenport grew from one to three. The Northwest Davenport Turner Society was established in and their first meeting place was Jacobsen's Hall at Locust and Division Streets, which was a combination boarding house and tavern.
