Brucemore, 2160 Linden Drive, Southeast, Cedar Rapids, Linn County, IA

Significance: Brucemore is a 26-acre estate located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The property is centered around a 21-room mansion built in 1884-1886 for Mrs. Caroline Sinclair, widow of meat-packing entrepreneur Thomas M. Sinclair. The estate was acquired by the George Bruce Douglas family in 1906, in an exchange of houses between Mr. Douglas and Mrs. Sinclair. The Douglas family, which had made its fortune in grain, occupied the house until 1937, when Mrs. Douglas died. The Douglas' eldest daughter, Margaret, and her husband, Howard Hall, resided at Brucemore until their deaths. In March of 1981, Margaret Hall bequeathed the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The estate is operated in co-stewardship with the National Trust by Brucemore, Inc., a non-profit organization, as a public historic site, house museum, and community cultural center. In addition to the mansion there are eight other buildings, a swimming pool, duck pond, formal gardens, and an orchard at Brucemore. Brucemore throughout its history exemplified the lives of prominent citizens in a small Midwestern urban center. The exterior of the house exemplifies the Queen Anne style, while the interior with its English Manor style great hall is characteristic of the American country house of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The design for the house was principally the work of the local architectural firm of Henry S. Josselyn and Eugene H. Taylor, while the circa 1908 remodeling for the Douglas family was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw.
Survey number: HABS IA-196