By Lisa Mohr, Staff writer

It's a veritable stone fortress, massive and ominous, set high up from Rock Island's 20th Street in the Highland Park Historic District.

The Looney House, 1635 20th St., was built in 1895 by the infamous racketeer as his family home. Although it's unclear how much time Mr. Looney spent there in later years, it served as his principal residence until his incarceration for murder in 1925.

``There's a darkness to that house, a dearth of soul that permeates it to this day,'' said historian Bj Elsner, who lived in the house for several years. ``Think about how sad life was for that family -- so much so that one daughter escaped to a cloistered life in the neighboring Villa de Chantal.''

The Looney House started out as a reproduction of the graceful classic Queen Anne across the street at 1703 20th St. That house was built by Looney's law partner, Frank Kelly, who retained architect George Stauduhar to design it. (Frank Kelly originally platted the Highland Park neighborhood).

Mr. Looney's house plans were identical -- at first.

``They started out as identical plans but Looney had to be bigger and better,'' said Ms. Elsner, editor of ``Rock Island: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.'' ``It wasn't long before he began adding on -- porches on three levels, stone pedestals, stone on the exterior instead of wood.

``Looney built everything for show. All the interior rooms where people congregated were luxurious. Conversely, the kitchen wasn't for show -- only servants went in it -- so it was built like a tiny captain's galley.''

The house is actually built of brick with a stone veneer. That, along with its size, gives it its fortress-like appearance.

``It doesn't help that it sits high up from the street, which makes it look like the haunted house on the hill,'' said Ray Berger, who bought the house with his wife, Vonnie, from restorationist Bob Yapp in February 1999. He said the regrading of 20th Street decades ago is the culprit behind the house's spooky appearance.

``This house and the Kelly house across the street were the first two houses built on the hill,'' he said. ``At that time, in 1895, 20th Street was level with my front yard.

``As time went on, they began to build houses to the south of here past 18th Avenue. Those houses began having trouble with water runoff after heavy rains -- they were flooding -- so they lowered the level of 20th Street and increased the slope to make the water run naturally downhill.''

Mr. Berger said that if you cross 20th Street and view his house from the high-level grounds of First Lutheran Church, it looks like a totally different house. ``The `hill' effect disappears, and this looks like exactly what it is -- a stunning and beautiful historic home.''

``The porches were what sold me on the house,'' said Vonnie Berger. ``The floor in the first-floor porch is made of brick, and it winds all the way around one side of the house. There are two more porches on the second floor and three small ones on the attic level.''

Other features the Bergers appreciated are first-floor inlaid floors in rosewood, ebony, walnut and oak; library built-ins in sycamore; dining-room built-ins in oak; several original stained-glass and beveled-glass windows; five fireplaces; and an incredible, wide, oak staircase that leads up to a rounded stairway bay with its original windows.

Today the Bergers are in the middle of a massive renovation. The house was chopped up in the 1930s into 13 studio apartments, each with its own Murphy pull-down bed and Murphy ``cabinet,'' a mini-kitchen unit that included a stove, refrigerator and sink made from cast iron and steel.

``All the bedrooms that were originally quite large were cut into these apartments, along with the rooms on the first floor,'' Mr. Berger said. ``There were even apartments in the basement. The two first-floor parlors had false walls, and the original pocket doors were converted into unit doors.

``There was linoleum over the original wood floors that was awful, but we found, when we took it up, that it actually preserved the wood in the long run.''

All the original woodwork and doors that were taken out during the 1930s conversion were salvaged on site, and the Bergers are slowly piecing everything back together. ``I've managed to locate most of the pocket doors, we've replaced the roof, and all the wooden eaves are restored. At least,'' he added, ``they didn't paint the woodwork.''

Another feature that especially impressed Mr. Berger was the evidence of a fire in what originally was a second-floor bedroom.

``You can still see the charred wood on the floor, and up in the attic, above this room, the rafters are charred. It must have been a serious fire, but there was minimal damage to the structure of the house.

``I like the fact I live in a house that won't burn to the ground.''