The Flynn Farm, Mansion, and Barn, also known as the Flynn Farm, Walnut Hill Farm, Clive Honor Farm, comprise a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located near

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1973.

Farm

The farm was originally and grew to be . with The portion of the farm in this historic district has been reduced to . It includes the original brick farmhouse and barn. Martin Flynn bought the land in 1867. Flynn was a livestock judge, cattle breeder, businessman, and railroad contractor. He was prominent from 1870 to 1906. From 1914 to 1967 the farm was owned by the state of Iowa and was part of the Clive Honor Prison Farm. After that, it became part of an agricultural museum,

Living History Farms Living History Farms is a 500-acre open-air museum located in Urbandale, Iowa, United States. The museum's mission is to educate visitors and demonstrate the past 300 years of Iowa's agricultural history. As its name implies, the museum follows ...

Flynn Mansion

The house was built from 1867 to 1871 in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

style for Martin and Ellen Flynn. They named their home Walnut Hill. The two-story brick house was built for $20,000. It has a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

, wide bracketed

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

, narrow double-paned windows with hoods, a porch, and heavily molded double doors. Originally, the exterior was not painted. There is a small wing on the back of the house with a side porch and simple roof brackets. A pre-cast cement addition was built onto the rear wing in the 19th century. The mansion sits on top a hill that overlooks the surrounding farmland and a stream.

Barn

The

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

-roofed barn that was built by Flynn has

board-and-batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

siding, a cupola for ventilation, numerous small window openings, and a large main door. The large structure provided shelter, grain and hay storage, and space for equipment for the large number of horses that were needed on the farm. File:Living History Farms 64.jpg, Side of mansion File:Living History Farms 65.jpg, View from corner File:Living History Farms 67.jpg, Detail of front stairs File:Living History Farms 69.jpg, Tower

References

{{Polk, IA HD Houses completed in 1871 National Register of Historic Places in Polk County, Iowa Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Farms on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Barns on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Italianate architecture in Iowa Historic districts in Polk County, Iowa Tourist attractions in Polk County, Iowa Houses in Polk County, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa