The Kingsbury Home

The Kingsbury home is off the old Lincoln highway in Nevada. This the home that my grandmother was raised in. My Great Uncle Marion Kingsbury remained a bachelor his entire life. Marion, Frank, and my grandmother Edna were raised in the home near Nevada. I have many memories of visits in the home and barns. When my uncle passed away, he left the entire farm and land to a family that he thought a lot of. The family farmed his land and help him in his later years. Through our church, I became acquainted with the B family and met Mrs. Suzanne B. I asked if I could come by and see the house sometime. I also found out they have it for sale. It makes me sad that this treasure that belongs in my family is no longer in our family and it will be sold. The future of the home, barns, and farm are unknown and it doesn't look too good. There is so much growth in the area with plants going up. Someone could easily snatch up this valuable piece of land, bulldoze it and it would vanish along with the history just like so many previous farmsteads. This house was a masterpiece of it's time and built solid and had so many fine modern features for its day. There was a whole article on every detail of the house building in the newspaper. It sounded just amazing for its time. It is over 100 years old and needs to be saved, restored, and held on to. Here is the history of the home.

Aiken, Laura and children, Frank, Maron, and Edna (My Grandmother).

 On October 28, 1920 the newspaper "The Iowa Homstead had an article written about The Kingsbury home. Volume LXV. No 44 The article is lengthy, but here is it copied. A Well planned Iowa Farmstead.

With Each added convenience in rural communities, such as rural rural free delivery of mail, the telephone, and the automobile, there has been a great deal said about bringing the farms closer to the towns. Very little if anything, has been said about bringing g the towns closer to the farms. Should you have the opportunity to visit the farm of A.G. Kingsbury, Story County, Iowa, , it would be quite evident to you that Mr. Kingsbury or the pleasant Mr. Kingsbury could not be versed in a program of bringing the farm closer to town. They reversed this procedure, skipped entirely over the town, and brought all the combined conveniences of the most modern convivences of the most modern city homes to the farm.  Driving along the well-surfaced Lincoln highway, four and a half miles east of.... you might not take particular note of this model country home, but the attention of any passerby would be attracted by the neat appearance of the red brick house with its tile roof and well-arranged grouping of the other buildings on the farmstead.  After nearly 50 years residence on farms in the vicinity of the Ames, Mr. Kingsbury purchased this half section of land a little more than three years ago. The buildings on the farm were old and poorly constructed and he and his wife at once planned the home that was completed three years ago this fall. With his residence on the farm, a plan was developed for the other buildings that have been constructed each years as time would allow and are now fairly complete. It is safe to say, however, that the improvements will never be completed while Mr. Kingsbury has the matter at hand, for he will always have in mind some additional convivence and important improvement. The buildings now consist of a 10 room house, a concrete garage with capacity for two cars, combined corncrib and granary, implement shed, cattle shed, hog houses, poultry houses, and two large barns. The total cost of all the buildings, complete with equipment was nearly $25,000, at the time of construction, one, two, and three years ago.  The house is built of finished red brick, plastered on the inner side, and with an inch air space between the brick wall and tile. Partitions are built of metallic tiling, a fireproof composition, that fits well into fireproof structure of the entire building. The floor joints are of reinforced concrete with steel beams so that the hardwood floors, cut on the bias, are set into the cement leaving about a half inch of air space between the floors and concrete base.  Housewives will be the most interested in the first floor of the Kingsbury home. The back porch is confined to a small, square, screened entranceway, that is not large enough to allow of making it a littered storage place, that opens into both the kitchen and the workroom. The workroom, eight feet square, has a smooth cement floor. Under the two large widows on the east is a zinc covered worktable extending the length of the room. Underneath this workbench is an array of capacious oak drawers, furnishing ample storage space for all manner of things. In one of the remaining corners of this room is a large corner sink in white porcelain material and in the other is an iceless refrigerator shaft, fitted with a dumb waiter that will receive 12 dishes and is easily lowered with a crank at the bottom of the natural refrigerator, some eight feet below the floor of the basement. The glass enclosed porch, on the northeast corner of the first floor, with doors into the workroom and dining room, has four French windows on either side and is large enough to make an attractive dining room during the hot summer months. A kitchen, dining room, living room, guest room, and roomy hall make up the main part of the ground floor. Quarter-sawed white oak flooring, with the exception of a maple floor in the kitchen, and exceptionally beautiful birch finish and quarter-sawed white oak double disappearing doors, dividing the dining room from the kitchen and living room, reveal the well developed tastes of this Iowa farmer and his wife. The kitchen is finished in quarter-sawed oak, while the guest room, separated from the living room with another disappearing door, is finished in flat-sawed red oak.

I was fortunate to get to take a tour of the home after nearly 30 years. From the outside, the house has changed very little, there is a deck that has been added to the backside. It is a nice addition. Inside, I was pleasantly surprised to see the familiar rooms. The house was changed very little. All the woodwork remained, the rooms and walls were still as they always had been. They just updated the decor. It was so neat to look around and reminisce. My favorite was walking into a bedroom and seeing an old beautiful bed and commenting on it. She told me she was going to get rid of it and I offered to buy it. She said she would save it for me and I could have it! I am super excited. This was a bed in the home my grandmother grew up in. She thinks it belonged to Frank, my grandma's brother. It will be neat to have that small piece of our family heirloom. Suzanne also shared many stories and memories of Marion. She also told me of many events that they have held at the farm. They have hosted several college student events. For years they have allowed our church to have a farm party for the international students. They have had lots of people ask to have pictures taken in front of the barns and even been asked to hold weddings. They said they would if they could handle the parking. The seem very hospitable and generous. It was great to see the house and I hope to bring Mark and the boys, my parents, and Wade's family for a tour as well.  I have many memories of visiting my Uncle for dinner. My grandmother would be in the kitchen fixing up a big meal that we would enjoy in the dinning room. This is a treasure in our family and I hate to see it go.