Salisbury House Foundation

Salisbury House, a 42-room mansion located in Des Moines, Iowa. Modeled after the King's House in Salisbury, England, this American Castle is nestled on a ten-acre estate of virgin woodlands in the heart of Iowa's capitol city.

Iowans Carl and Edith Weeks built Salisbury House between 1923 and 1928. True to the history and design of the King's House, Salisbury House reflects the Tudor, Gothic, and Carolean periods of architecture. The mansion contains authentic 16th century English oak, English flint work, and rafters that date back to the time of Shakespeare. Salisbury House is filled with original furnishings and a collection of rare objects of art, paintings, tapestries, books, and letters that belonged to the Weeks family.

Salisbury House has been called a "national treasure" by the National Trust For Historic Preservation and was featured on the national television series "America's Castles" on the A & E Cable Network and Home and Garden Television's "Christmas Castles."

Salisbury House Foundation, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to preserve, interpret, and share the international significance of Salisbury House and its collections as a historic house museum for the educational and cultural benefit and enjoyment of the public, owns and operates Salisbury House.

History:

Americans in the 1920s saw themselves as being modern above all else. The dream home of the period would not have been completed, despite its charm and costliness were it not endowed with all the conveniences. Said the Des Moines Capital of Salisbury House on September 27, 1928, "...[Weeks] was fortunate to secure unusual pieces here and there, all of them from the same period and all of them fitting into a most beautiful modern home, as convenient as it is luxurious. For the new home has hooked up with the old in a way they cannot do it in England where the buildings stand as they were built in that old time, and where they cannot be rebuilt as this one has been here in Des Moines."

The list of modern conveniences included stylish luxury bathrooms, complete with tile, marble, and chrome; a garage housing a fleet of autos including a Cadillac V-12 Sedan, Cadillac V-12 Coupe, and a Packard; an elevator serving all four floors; the most up-to-date dishwasher Mrs. Weeks could find; a security switch at Carl's bedside controlling all the lights; and an enormous gas dryer with doors and racks for a full load of laundry.

Weeks commented on labor saving devices saying, "...oil heaters, water softeners, fool-proof washing machines and the telephone system all operate to increase our stock of that most valuable commodity - time."

The Weeks were aided not only by time saving devices, but also by no less than half a dozen servants including a gardener and his wife, upstairs and downstairs maids, butler, chauffeur, furnace man and laundress.

The Weeks family, like many owners of the great estates, felt the effects of the Great Depression. In 1934, they gave the home to Drake University for a future school of fine arts. The Weeks family continued to own the entire collection and made arrangements to remain in the home, at a nominal rent, until the details were worked out. Although there were high hopes for the plan at the time the gift was made, Drake eventually had to abandon the plans. In 1954, the home and collection again came under one ownership. Drake sold the house and grounds, and Carl and Edith sold the collection to the Iowa State Education Association for their headquarters and a museum.

Edith Weeks died in 1955. Carl Weeks retired from Armand in 1949, and passed away in June 1962. But his enthusiasm and sense of pride in his Salisbury House never diminished.

Certainly the twenties represented a special era, a time when a man like Carl Weeks could fulfill a dream of such magnitude with an endearing naive idealism. Today, such a project would be seen as pretentious, or more likely as an unwise investment and, therefore, unthinkable. But Carl Weeks had the vision to see it through to perfection, for future generations to enjoy.