The House on the Bluff

Overlooking the Mississippi River from a high bluff sits the house where John Deere spent his final years. Deere made this Second Empire mansion his home in his later years. By then, he had already built one of the most consequential companies in American agricultural history.

He had moved his steel plow operation to Moline in eighteen forty-eight to take advantage of the river's water power, and the company had grown into a global manufacturer. Deere died in eighteen eighty-six. The house is now a Moline Historic Landmark.

Down the bluff from where you are now, the original John Deere Plow Works site is marked by the John Deere Pavilion, a free museum of agricultural and industrial history.