Linsay House

The Lindsay House is a historic building located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It was listed, misspelled as the Linsay House, on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.[1] The house was built in 1893 by John Jayne, an Iowa City bridge builder. The plans for the 2½-story, frame, Queen Anne were purchased from George F. Barber and Co.[2] It features a chimney that takes up an entire corner of the main facade, a stone arch that surrounds the first-floor window with leaded glass in a sunflower pattern, a wrap-around porch with a corner turret, and a three-story octagonal tower behind it.

Lindsay House
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	935 E. College Iowa City, Iowa
Coordinates	41°39′31″N 91°31′17.2″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1893
Architect	George F. Barber and Co.
Architectural style	Queen Anne
NRHP reference No.	77000529[1]
Added to NRHP	August 2, 1977

Jayne gave the house as a wedding gift to his daughter, Ella, and her husband, John Granger Lindsay. The Lindsays moved to Chicago in 1913. It was the Theta Xi Fraternity Xi Chapter house from 1914[3]-1915.[4] The house was subsequently divided into apartments, and in 2005 became a 10-bedroom unit of the River City Housing Collective.[5][6] It is perhaps most famous as the model for the boarding house in the comic strip Bloom County, and where the strip is partially set.[7] Berkeley Breathed, who wrote the comic strip, 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]