The B. Bartlett Joshua Palmer β was the son of Daniel David Palmer , who established the practice of chiropractic. Palmer convinced his father to establish a school of chiropractic in Davenport.
In the first decade of the 20th century, B. Palmer purchased the mansions built by J. Duncan, W. Petersen and Thomas Barron on the top of Brady Street for the school.
In he bought a small radio station in Rock Island, Illinois , and moved it to a studio near the school's campus and it became WOC. It was the second commercial radio station in the United States and the first west of the Mississippi River.
Dessaint, who was a local lumber mill owner. Hancock bought the house in and William D. Petersen bought it in He was a part of the family that owned a department store downtown that became Von Maur. The Petersen family redecorated the house in In he had the foot 43 m enclosed porch built around the structure that created a room for entertaining.
WOC radio had its first studio on the porch. Palmer's favorite room in the house was called the rustic room. It incorporated the trunks and branches of four oak trees that were cut down to make room for a classroom building that was built next to the house. Some of the logs are wrapped in belts with metal buckles from the uniforms of Palmer students who served in World War I.
