Linsay House

{{short description|Historic house in Iowa, United States}} {{Use American English|date=September 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox NRHP | name =Lindsay House | nrhp_type = | image = 935 College St., built in 1893.jpeg | caption = | location = 935 E. College<br>Iowa City, Iowa | coordinates = {{coord|41|39|31|N|91|31|17.2|W|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Iowa#USA | area = less than one acre | built = 1893 | architect = George F. Barber and Co. | architecture = Queen Anne | added = August 2, 1977 | refnum = 77000529<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref> }}

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.<ref name="nris"/> 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.<ref name=Juilfs>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=77000529}}|title=Linsay House|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=2017-05-22|author=James R. Juilfs}} with {{NRHP url|id=77000529|photos=y|title=photo(s)}}</ref> 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.

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<ref>{{Cite web |title=University of Iowa Hawkeye yearbook, 1914 |url=https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Ayrbks1_14254#page/248/mode/2up }}</ref>-1915.<ref>{{Cite web |title=University of Iowa Hawkeye yearbook, 1915 |url=https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/islandora/object/ui%3Ayrbks1_14835#page/280/mode/2up }}</ref> The house was subsequently divided into apartments, and in 2005 became a 10-bedroom unit of the River City Housing Collective.<ref name=Langton>{{cite news|last1=Langton|first1=Diane|title=Time Machine: Bloom County House|url=http://thegazette.com/subject/news/time-machine-bloom-county-house-20150126|accessdate=2015-03-26|work=The Gazette|date=January 26, 2015}}</ref><ref name=Collective>{{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/rivercityhousingcollective/houses/bloom-county-house|title=Bloom County House|publisher=River City Housing Collective|accessdate=2017-05-22|author=}}</ref>

Berkeley Breathed, who wrote the comic strip ''Bloom County'', 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".<ref name=Langton/> Breathed used the house as the model for the boarding house where ''Bloom County'' is partially set.<ref>{{citation|last=Holden|first=Greg|title=The Booklover's Guide to the Midwest: A Literary Tour|page=113 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ItuQdL22RKgC&dq=linsay+house+bloom+county&pg=PA113|publisher=Clerisy Press}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Houses completed in 1893 Category:Queen Anne architecture in Iowa Category:Houses in Iowa City, Iowa Category:National Register of Historic Places in Iowa City, Iowa Category:Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Category:Theta Xi houses