Salisbury House was modeled after the King's House in England

Salisbury House is a manor home in Des Moines, Iowa, built in Tudor, Gothic, and Carolean styles. Between 1923 and 1928, cosmetics magnate Carl Weeks and his wife, Edith Van Slyke Weeks, constructed the home, which was modeled after the King's House in Salisbury, England. The manor measures just over 22,000 square feet and contains 42 rooms.

The construction of the house began with an original budget of $150,000, but the final cost reached $3 million. The family moved into the home in 1926 with their four sons - Charles, William, Evert, and Lafayette. The Weeks Family amassed extensive collections of fine art, decorative art, rare books, musical instruments, historic documents, weapons, and sculpture.

In 1934, Carl and Edith Weeks donated Salisbury House to Drake University while retaining ownership of the house's collections and furnishings. They paid rent to Drake University as tenants until 1954. In 1954, the Iowa State Education Association purchased the house and the collections for $180,000 and used the building as office space.

In 1998, the Salisbury House Foundation purchased the property and collections from the Iowa State Education Association for $4.0 million. The property began operating as a historic house museum in 1999. While most of the original collections remain in the house today, Grinnell College purchased the library of Carl and Edith Weeks in 2019, including approximately 3,000 volumes and 2,500 historic documents.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons