Salisbury House and Gardens

Salisbury House was the vision of Carl Weeks, a wealthy cosmetics manufacturer, and his wife Edith, who wanted a home that captured the character of old English architecture. Rather than merely imitate the style, they had genuine materials brought over, including oak timbers, flint, and stone, and it is said that pieces of a centuries-old English building were incorporated into the structure so that parts of the walls were truly old.

The result, completed in the second half of the 1920s, is a rambling manor of many rooms and periods, blending medieval, Tudor, and later English styles into one theatrical whole. Weeks spared little expense, and the house became one of the grandest private residences ever built in Iowa, a piece of Old World fantasy raised on the prairie during the Jazz Age.

The Weeks family were serious collectors, and they filled the house with a wealth of art and antiquities. The library holds rare books and manuscripts, including early printed works and literary treasures, and the rooms are hung with tapestries and paintings and lined with carved paneling and stained glass gathered on trips abroad.

When financial reverses forced the family to give up the house, the collections and the manor eventually passed into the care of a nonprofit foundation, which preserves them as a museum. Touring the rooms today is like stepping into a private collection assembled by people who loved beautiful old things and had the means to gather them from around the world.

The manor sits on wooded grounds on a hillside above the city, with gardens, lawns, and mature trees that complete the illusion of an old English estate. The setting was chosen and shaped to frame the house, and the grounds remain a peaceful green retreat within Des Moines.

The gardens change with the seasons and host events through the warmer months, from concerts to weddings, and the woods and lawns make a quiet backdrop for a stroll before or after a house tour. It is a rare pocket of Old World calm a short drive from the state capitol and downtown.

Spring and summer are the fullest seasons, with the gardens in bloom, the grounds green, and a busy calendar of tours and events. It is the best time to combine an indoor tour with a walk of the grounds.

Fall brings color to the wooded hillside and cooler days for touring the house, and winter draws the museum inside for holiday events and quieter, atmospheric tours of the paneled rooms. As with any historic house museum, checking the schedule ahead is wise, since private events can affect public hours.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.