The Chaffee-Hunter House is a historic building located in Des Moines, Iowa, United States. Built in 1886, the single family dwelling is named for its first two residents, Henry L. Chaffee and Edward H. Hunter who bought it from Chaffee in 1891. The house calls attention to Hunter who served as the local

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

from 1894 to 1898. He conceived and implemented the idea of a streetcar-mounted collection box for the mail. It was later implemented in other cities in the country. with The 2½-story frame Queen Anne structure features a gable-on-hip roof with intersecting gables, a brick foundation, wrap-around porch, and

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

windows. The house was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. It was included as a

contributing property In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

in the Polk County Homestead and Trust Company Addition Historic District in 2016.

References

Houses completed in 1886 Queen Anne architecture in Iowa Houses in Des Moines, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Des Moines, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Iowa {{DesMoinesIA-stub