Moline's downtown serves as one of the civic and recreational hubs of the region as many events take place at the 12,000-seat Vibrant Arena at The MARK and at John Deere Commons.

In 1837, David B. Sears and a group of associates built a 600-foot (180 m) stone-and-brush dam across Sylvan Slough, thereby connecting the southern bank of the Mississippi River to what is today called Arsenal Island.

The dam not only served as an access road between the island's settlements and the mainland, but it provided water power for a mill which Sears built to saw wood, grind corn, and card wool.

When Charles Atkinson, one of the major landowners in the area, was offered the choice of naming the town Moline ("City of Mills", from the French moulin, as suggested by a local surveyor P.H.

Charles Atkinson and others successfully lobbied the federal government to get the first transcontinental railroad to pass through Moline and to cross the Mississippi over Arsenal Island.

The railroad, which arrived in 1854, carried thousands of immigrants – at that time mostly Swedish, Belgian, and German, reflecting areas of economic problems in Europe – to Moline's borders.

[8] Following incorporation, Moline was laid out in an orderly initial grid of sixteen square blocks with streets named after the primary landowners of the time.

Other points of conflict included that Moline did not want to have to assume any of Rock Island's public debt; Rock Island feared that a union with Moline would drive down its property values; and the citizens of the two towns, representing different regions, classes, occupations and ethnicities, widely disagreed on major political issues of the day.

The street grid remained a set of rectangular blocks, and though no zoning commission or local authority directly oversaw construction, the unwritten code of carpenters, masons, and citizens kept the city a well-planned place.

"[13] Over time, John Deere expanded operations into other agricultural equipment, and Deere-affiliated factories employed the bulk of Moline's workforce.

[16] During the last few decades of the 19th century, Moline had continued prosperity, expansion of the city to the southwest, west, and east along the Mississippi river, and a stronger relationship with neighboring communities.

Moline's streetcar system, the state's first and only the nation's third, was also Illinois's best for a number of years, with a minimal five-cent fare and an extensive coverage area.

Moline was re-chartered as a city under a mayor/aldermanic form of government on April 21, 1872, and John Deere, the longtime resident and entrepreneur, was defeated by Daniel Wheelock, a newcomer, for the first mayorship.

[20] Belgian and Swedish immigrants began arriving in a huge influx, settling into a neighborhood on the bluffs in the southwestern part of the city.

Several roads were removed or re-routed in the interest of creating an aesthetically pleasing downtown and a more orderly method of horse and streetcar transit.

[27] A bustling retail sector emerged in downtown Moline, anchored by merchants like the New York Store, Sears & Roebuck, and JC Penney.

Moline witnessed a continued population increase after World War II with the completion of "Molette", a subdivision of mass-produced starter homes selling for $5,000 each.

As Moline grew, the traditional rectilinear grid of the downtown area gave way to smaller subdivisions containing cul-de-sacs, curvilinear roadways, and courts.

the city is literally interlaced with fingers of wooded ravines draining surface water to the north into the Mississippi and to the south into the creeks and drainage ditches tributary to the Rock River.

Specifically, it is designed to lessen congestion in streets and to avoid future congestion; to secure safety from fire and other hazards; to provide light and air about buildings in which people live; to prevent overcrowding of land and avoid excessive concentration of population; to assist in adequately providing transportation, water supply, sewage disposal, schools, parks, and other public requirements.

[34] Existing companies, including John Deere, Alcoa, Caterpillar, Case, and International Harvester all continued to grow and expand operations in the area, but no real diversification of local industry occurred; Moline remained steadfastly dependent on the farm implement industry for its economic solvency, a dependency that later proved disastrous.

"[35] As a result of the gradual dissolution of the trends of industrial expansion and the end of the age of immigration, Moline's population stagnated throughout the mid-to-late-20th century, settling in the 40,000–45,000 range, where it remains today.

Renovations have been completed on many old brownstone buildings, and plans for shoreline mixed-use condominium and retail developments are in the works on the site of vacant industrial land.

Moline still reflects the rich culture of the successive waves of immigrants from France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Eastern Europe, and most recently, Mexico.

Events such as the annual Greek Cultural Festival at John Deere Commons, Rolle Bolle tournaments at Stephen's Park, and "Viva!

The building opened in August 2012, and also has a combination of active and passive energy strategies includes an array of 1365 distributed solar panels, which is now the third largest in the state of Illinois.

Western Illinois University-Quad Cities continued to grow its presence and list of educational opportunities they provide with the completion of Phase II in 2014.

Such notable future Major Leaguers as Rube Ehrhardt, Peanuts Lowrey, Claude Passeau and Eddie Waitkus played for the Plowboys, whose team president for three years was Warren Giles, later inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Channel Cat Water Taxi and the Celebration Belle, a non-gaming excursion riverboat built in the 19th century style, both dock along the Parkway.

The Quad Cities has numerous media outlets, including dozens of radio stations; local affiliates of Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS; and three newspapers.