City: Des Moines, IA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (515) 243-7063

Description: This modest Victorian Italianate home in the Sherman Hill neighborhood was home to the Wallace family beginning in the late 1800s, when patriarch Henry Wallace moved his family to Des Moines, living in the house while editing Wallaces’ Farmer and Iowa Homestead, influential newspapers and agricultural journals. Many other Wallaces passed through the house, including future US Secretary of Agriculture and presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace. The home remained in the Wallace family until the 1940s, then was repurchased in the 1980s and largely restored to its original floor plan and appearance, with period furniture and other items. Tours of the house are available Tues through Fri, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Donations are suggested. The Wallace Centers of Iowa, which maintains the house, also operates the Country Life Center, located on the old Wallace Family Farm near Orient, Iowa, about an hour and a half drive southwest of Des Moines. It includes a restored farmhouse and barn as well as a flower garden and displays and artistic exhibits. There’s also a restored Iowa prairie with native grasses.