Orient Iowa Toursim |
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This home was probably built in the 1870's. Henry A's grandfather owned the house and this was one of his tenant farms. Wallace was born in the house, and his family lived their until 1890. Local volunteers got the house and the 40 acres placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house and the land remained in private hands until October 1994, when the Henry A. Wallace Birthplace Foundation bought it. The foundation raised some money locally. The Wallace family has been generous, and Pioneer Hi-Bred International provided the foundation with a grant. |
Restoration of the property began in July 1995. Volunteers gutted the house before Greenfield carpenters Phil and Rich McIntosh began work.
Enthusiastic volunteers tackled the job on the hottest day in 1995. Workers removed the aluminum siding. "It was like unwrapping a package,'' Diane says. "It was wonderful.'' The south and most of the east side of the house still had its original cedar siding, she said. The aluminum siding covered two window openings on the west wall. Carpet covered the pine wood floors. About a third of the rough pine flooring appears to be original, she says. "Henry A. could've crawled around on this floor here,'' Weiland says. Attempts to modernize the house with carpeting protected the floor, says McIntosh.
"The house itself was pretty well built,'' Diane says. However, the foundation was pretty rotted out from the water over the years. An old porch was removed on the northeast side and a wheelchair-accessible room was added in the back.
One of the things the Foundation demonstrates is the soil conservation practices Henry A. Wallace brought into farming. "Those were his ideas and he brought them into the national agenda when he was secretary of agriculture,'' Diane says. The Henry A. Wallace Center now has a reconstructed Iowa prairie, woodland, Community Supported Agriculture produce gardens, apple orchard and walking path..
Visit the Henry A. Wallace Center web site.
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