12 June 2005

Marble Rock, IA


Today's tour is of Marble Rock. It's about 5 miles away from us. From what I understand it was once a community of some wealth. Now it's basically a ghost town. I can vaguely remember from my childhood some of the beautiful homes along the main drag that are since long gone.




This house is getting a new roof. Which is nice on one hand, but on the other it used to have a Spanish tile roof. It really dressed the place up. It's still a nice house, but just not as eye catching.




Marble Rocks answer to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.




The old school.



I love this house! Someday I'm going to find out who owns it and ask for a tour.



For some reason the residents of Marble Rock like onion domes. There's another house in a lot worse shape down the road (too much over growth to get a picture, you'll have to wait till this fall) with this same feature. In fact now that I think about it the houses also have the same porch. Could they be sisters? New project for Becky.



Lovely porch.



Not so lovely porch.



This house is enormous. I was going to get a side view also so you could see better for yourself, but the camera battery died. When I was younger I always thought nuns lived here, just because it looks like the kind of place you'd find nuns.

5 comments:

Lynette said...

Thanks for posting these, it's an interesting glimpse into a little town I'd never even heard of! I like the onion domey one especially - the curved lines of the verandah makes it look a bit art-deco'ey...

Anonymous said...

Hey, you know the huge house at the end of the post? My parents used to share that house with another couple (before children). Not quite nuns...just my parents

Suzanne said...

Wonderful story, and it gives me the itch to get in the car and drive...finding photos along the way. Marble Rock presents some very interesting photo ops. What happened to the town? Why did is it dying?

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

I enjoyed seeing your photos and reading your commentary of the town in which I spent the first twelve years of my life.