Post Date
September,
24
2024
The name Carnegie has a lasting position in US history, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an American who hasn’t at least heard the name. Andrew Carnegie had a major hand in the development of this country in the 19th and early 20th centuries, for both good and ill.
His business practices inspired one of the most popular board games of the past century, while also changing how the U.S. approached the control companies were allowed to possess. While these resulted from less-than-ideal practices, he also used his unimaginable fortune to establish Carnegie Hall, a true American landmark of musical performance, along with over 1,600 libraries.
At one point in 1919, nearly half the libraries in the country were Carnegie libraries, including one that opened in downtown Moline in 1904, staying in operation until 2008. While this neoclassical structure still has his name emblazoned across its entrance, the bookshelves have long been removed.
Combining two things so heavily related to the steel magnate (a music hall/performance space and one of the libraries that bears his name), in late 2023 Sound Conservatory and owner Andrzej Kozlowski took over this space; trading past publications for piano keys. Kozlowski, a native of Poland who spent a lot of his time in New York, even studying at the famous Julliard school, has said that the historical nature of the QCA is a big factor of what initially drew him here, so it’s only fitting that he would eventually find himself in a space rooted so deeply in the local and national narrative.
