One year after the apartment building at 324 Main St in downtown Davenport partially collapsed, killing three residents and severely injuring a fourth, more than 80 people gathered at the site on Tuesday evening for a memorial vigil. Three small crosses were planted months ago at the edge of the grassy lot where the now-demolished 116-year-old building stood. They were placed there in memory of the deceased: Brandon Colvin Sr., Ryan Hitchcock and Daniel Prien.
A banner at the vigil on Tuesday displayed their names and faces.
In the months before the collapse, residents, city workers and contractors working on the building raised concerns about its condition. Four days before the collapse, the city issued a permit for repairs to the exterior west wall of the building, where the brickwork was in danger of immediate collapse, according to an engineering report. It was that section of the building that collapsed on May 28, 2023.
Colvin, Hitchcock and Prien all lived in that part of the building. Their bodies were buried under the debris. Quanishia White-Berry was trapped by the rubble. Her left leg was amputated above the knee to free her from the wreckage in the extremely unstable remains of the building.
White-Berry lived on the fourth floor of the building, and was starting to cook dinner on May 28, 2023, when the collapse began.
“Things started to detach from the walls, the walls started to separate,” she told WQAD ahead of the one year anniversary.. “Before we knew it… right outside the [bathroom] doorframe, it was cracking at the top.”
White-Berry fell four stories when the floor of her apartment gave way. She was conscious and remarkably had not broken any bones in the fall, but was pinned down by debris.
“I had cement just stacked up like on the side of my head,” she recalled. “I did have my arms free, so I was moving a few things so that I could breathe.”
White-Berry was hospitalized after being freed from the wreckage. She has had four subsequent surgeries, and is still undergoing physical therapy. She told WQAD she hopes to be able to walk with a prosthetic leg by the end of the year.
Because of the structure’s instability, none of the building’s residents were allowed back into it to retrieve any of their belongings from the apartments. That instability also led the city to announce it would demolish the building while five residents were still unaccounted for. Community protest stopped the demolition from happening until the bodies of the dead were recovered and the whereabouts of the other two people were known for sure.
After the collapse, Andrew Wold, the building’s owner, was cited for violating city code by failing to keep the decaying apartment building in a safe, sanitary and structurally sound condition. The citation carried a maximum penalty of $300. No criminal charges related to the collapse have been filed during the year after the collapse.
Several lawsuits have been filed not just against Wold, but also against the City of Davenport and certain city officials over the failures of the city’s building inspection process to properly assess the state of the building, despite repeated reports of unsafe conditions, and to ensure the safety of the residents in its apartments. In September, the lawsuits were consolidated into a single class-action lawsuit. The case is not expected to reach a courtroom before the beginning of 2026.
Last year, the city hired the two forensic engineering firms to determine the cause of the collapse. It is also paying the firms to review city rental and inspection policies, and present a report their findings with recommendation for any needed changes.
“A report and presentation to the city council is expected sometime this summer,” the Quad-City Times reported.
So far, Davenport has made no substantial changes in city code or inspection procedures in response to the collapse of 324 Main Street.
