Linsay House

Linsay-Lake House
Location 935 E. College, Iowa City, Iowa
Coordinates 41°39′27″N 91°31′17″W / 41.65750°N 91.52139°WCoordinates: 41°39′27″N 91°31′17″W / 41.65750°N 91.52139°W
Built 1893
Architect George F. Barber and Co.
Architectural style neo-Jacobean
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference #

77000529

[1]
Added to NRHP August 2, 1977

The Linsay House (also called the Lindsay-Lake House) is a house in Iowa City listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is perhaps most famous as the model for the Bloom County boarding house.[2] Currently, it is run as a not-for-profit cooperative by the River City Housing Collective.[3]

The house was built in 1893 by John Jayne, an Iowa City bridge builder. Jayne gifted the home as a wedding gift to his daughter, Ella, and her husband, John Granger Lindsay. The Lindsays moved to Chicago in 1913. The house was subsequently divided into apartments, and in 2005 became a 10-bedroom unit of the River City Housing Collective.[4]

Berkeley Breathed, writer of the comic strip Bloom County, which is partially set in the house, called the house one of “the ugliest houses in the five-state area... Six different architectural styles in one house is a milestone at least and at most a landmark to bad taste”.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15.
  2. ↑ Holden, Greg, The Booklover's Guide to the Midwest: A Literary Tour, Clerisy Press, p. 113
  3. ↑ River City Housing Collective, http://www.rchc.coop
  4. ↑ Langton, Diane (January 26, 2015). "Time Machine: Bloom County House". Cedar Rapids Gazette. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Langton, Diane (January 26, 2015). "Time Machine: Bloom County House". Cedar Rapids Gazette. Retrieved 26 March 2015.