A Famous Mansion Was Built and Left To Decay in the Middle of an Iowa Field

A 25,000-square-foot mansion isn't something you necessarily expect to find rotting away in the middle of a field. You'd expect to find mansions in Iowa closer to—or in—a town, especially a mansion built for Roseanne Barr, no less! Yet that's exactly what's happening to Barr's abandoned Iowa mansion outside of Eldon, Iowa. Barr is best known as the star of the popular 1990s sitcom Roseanne, which portrayed a working-class, Midwest American family. The show was a hit, running for over a decade, and at its peak, Roseanne decided to put down some roots in Iowa, not far from Ottumwa, where her then-husband, Tom Arnold, had grown up.

The couple opened a restaurant in Eldon, a town famously home to the house that served as the backdrop to Grant Wood's iconic American Gothic. "Roseanne and Tom's Big Food Diner," as it was called, specialized in loose meat sandwiches (think sloppy joes without the sauce), an Iowa favorite popularized by places like the Maid-Rite chain and Canteen Lunch in Ottumwa (a possible model for the Lanford Lunch Box from Roseanne, given that Arnold was a writer on the show).

Barr and Arnold also bought a large 1,700-acre property just east of Eldon and began building themselves a palace. Originally intended as a getaway home for Barr and her husband Tom Arnold (an Iowa native), construction on this mansion was halted in 1994 when the two ended their relationship. Halted, and never resumed. Their restaurant shuttered a short time later, in 1995.

The mansion was going to be a $16 million, 28,000-square-foot Victorian-style dream home, which would have made it the largest, most expensive home in all of Iowa at the time. It was to be set on the acreage with serene views of a private pond.

It was going to feature an Olympic-sized indoor pool, a four-lane bowling alley, and a screening room just in the basement. (You know, like mansions do.) Instead, in 1995, Barr and Arnold donated the land and the half-built mansion to Indian Hills Community College.

The college then sold the land to a private party in 2012. Apparently too expensive to demolish or recover, the structure has slowly been reclaimed by nature and continues to decompose today.

Did you know about the abandoned Roseanne Barr mansion in Iowa, moldering away in a field outside Eldon? What other abandoned gems, like the Roseanne Barr Iowa house, do you know of that were built and left to disintegrate? We'd love to hear all about your top picks over on our Nomination page. Here's some road trip inspiration featuring a few other abandoned places in Iowa.

If you're ready for your next adventure in the Hawkeye State, head over to Only In Your State’s itinerary planner to get started.