Return to a boyhood memory

NORTH LIBERTY — Harlan Ranshaw's steps may have slowed over the years, but while revisiting the Ranshaw House on Aug. 2 for his 90th birthday party, the Johnson County native was taken back to 1935. Back then he was a 10-year-old boy exploring his grandfather's house.

But even more important than returning earlier this month to the house that bears his last name, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, Harlan shared his childhood memories with this wife, three daughters and grandchildren — many of whom saw the inside of the house for the first time that day.

'You never know how that's going to go with younger people, and they just thoroughly enjoyed it. I think they got the feeling of how important this is for some of us, that part of it was just great,' Harlan said. 'It was perfect all the way through, from beginning to end.'

A statement house

In 1908, a wealthy North Liberty farmer named Samuel Ranshaw paid for the construction of a late Queen Anne-style house on a farmstead located on what was then the outskirts of town where he would live with his wife Emma A. Stauffer.

'Ranshaw was only 45 years of age when he built his retirement home, a true display of his economic achievements. The house certainly reflects his success at the peak of his career,' according to the house's nomination papers for the National Register of Historic Places.

'Samuel Ranshaw came to be considered one of the wealthiest and most progressive citizens in the county. It was noted that he was a farmer with a business education. This, plus native ability of a high order accounted in part for his success.'

A statement of his wealth at the time, Samuel's house was more of a mansion and displayed modern amenities unheard of at the time that included hot and cold indoor plumbing with soft and hard water, gas lighting, custom woodwork, classic columns and ornamental glass.

'It was an easy building to like because it had stuff that you didn't see anywhere else,' Harlan said. 'It isn't just another house, it was unique.'

Harlan attributes many of the amenities that shape the Ranshaw House to his grandmother Emma, who died in 1919, before he was born.

'She was a really strong-willed woman, I gathered that,' he said. 'I figured she was the one that really dictated what was put into that house because it was a very special house at that time.'

Samuel remarried in 1921, to Rose Boyington,

But in 1929, when Harlan was about five years old, the Wall Street stock market crash sent countless Americans into poverty, and not even his grandfather Samuel was immune.

In 1936, shortly after Rose Boyington's death, Samuel was forced to sell his beloved house.

He died in 1951 at the age of 87 in his daughter's home, where he had been living.

A special place

Growing up in poverty, Harlan recalls traveling the eight miles from Iowa City to North Liberty to spend weekends and extended summer stays in his grandparents' home.

The 'eternal coffee smell' drifting from the kitchen, exploring the house's attic or sitting down at the table for large family dinners all resonate as fond memories.

But there was one place not even Harlan was allowed to set foot — the main stairwell and nearby parlor, which hid behind always closed pocket doors, he recalled.

'We never used the front stairway, never. I figured it was for special occasions and special people,' he said.

By the time Harlan was 10, the Ranshaw House was sold and he no longer visited. But later in life, every trip to North Liberty required a detour down Penn Street to drive passed the house his grandfather built.

'I remember that as a kid, every time we'd go visit relatives, we'd have to drive by and dad would say, 'There's my grandparent's house,'' Harlan's daughter Karen Adams recalled. 'We never got any closer than that, but I always thought like that was part of my history, too, even though I had never touched it.'

It wasn't all that surprising for Harlan's family members when he said that all he wanted for his 90th birthday was to spend time with his immediate family at the Ranshaw House, which was purchased by the city in 2004.

So with the help of North Liberty Assistant City Administrator Tracey Mulcahey, a party was planned.

'The only important thing was that my dad had a good time and he was on cloud nine,' said Sheryl Reed, one of Harlan's three daughters. 'I think it was just a dream come true for him.'

Harlan's eldest daughter, Linda Brown, said during the party a little bit of that 10-year-old boy who spent so much time in the house began to show.

'He was like a little kid going through there and telling us different stories,' she said.

A city committed

The city of North Liberty bought the house after the it had spent some time as a day care center.

Plans were on anything but preservation.

'The new aquatics center had just opened in the rec center, and we were seeing pressure on the parking lot in the summer, so it just made sense to buy ...

The plan was to demo,' Mulcahey said.

'Someone got into the house and was really taken aback that it was in its original condition for the most part, so we started the process of conditioning rather than demolishing.'

Mulcahey inherited the project when she started working for the city in 2005, and for the past 10 years she has been writing grant applications seeking funds to restore the house.

So far $92,000 — $62,000 of that in grant money — has gone into the house for exterior paint, window replacement and roof repairs. Mulcahey estimated that the remaining work — heating and air conditioning, plumbing, electrical and some aesthetic repairs — will cost more than $100,000, and there is a possibility the city could dedicate a piece of future budgets to the effort.

The ultimate goal is to turn the Ranshaw House into a history center that will be open to the public.

'I think it's important for us as a younger, newer resident community to protect some of that history because we don't have a whole lot of it, and it's important to remember where we came from as a community, and I think the Ranshaw House is a part of that,' Mulcahey said.

For Harlan, to have his grandfather's home, a fixture in so many childhood memories, recognized as a historic landmark and receive such a commitment from the city is something he never imagined.

'Your roots are pretty important. How many families can come up with this story that we're talking about now?' he said, sitting in Reed's West Des Moines living room.

'The fact that it has had its ups and downs and now we're up here and we're not alone, it's a community project now, which is better than I ever dreamed it would be. It's much greater than I could have imagined,' he said.

Work still remains to bring the Ranshaw House back to it's original stature. But if you ask Harlan about it, he'll be around to see it.

'I'll see you in 10 years,' Harlan said, after finally taking that long awaited walk up the house's main stairwell.