Iowa College was founded in 1846 by members of the Congregational Church on Western Avenue in Davenport.

[4] The following year the school property was purchased by Henry Washington Lee, the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa for $36,000.

[6] The diocese sold the property on the west side of Main Street to the Davenport Board of Education for $53,000.

Davenport architect John W. Ross designed the two-story, brick, Gothic Revival, Ely House (1881).

Caroline D. Ely of New York paid for its construction, and its use was intended as the residence for the holder of a theological chair at Griswold College.

[3] Davenport Central High School sits directly across Main Street from Trinity Cathedral.

It was designed by Parke Burrows in the Beaux Arts style and was built in dark red brick.

[14] He utilized a Victorian Romanesque Revival style that was built in dark red brick and red-brown sandstone for the foundation and details.

There is a round tower on the southeast corner of the building with a stylized cross on the top of the spire-shaped roof.

Between the cathedral and the high school sits the Civil War Soldier's monument in the middle of Main Street.

The monument is a stone obelisk topped by a statue of a soldier, which faces south towards the Mississippi River in the valley below.

The battles listed are: Shilo, Donelson, Wilsons Creek, Fort Blakeley, Corinth, Prairie Grove, and Vicksburg.

[15][16] The residential section of the district is a four-block area north of the high school and cathedral complexes.

The Gothic Revival structure that was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places has since been torn down.