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Tn» hawk 1TI Thurtdoy, Dxmbr 28, 1978Poflt 3West Burlington's Deems mansion awaits demolitionA gracious era passesBy MICHAEL SWEETWEST BURLINGTON - An evening drive out Agency road here was often highlighted by the setting sun flashing through the leaves of majestic oaks. Behind the row of portly, almost pompous trees stood the mansion — austere, beautiful, haunting and haughty.With its stout columns on the east portico reminiscent of the Deep South, its long driveway and massive framework, the three story house has stood for 60 years, seemingly invinceable, recalling to casual passersby the grandeur of another age.The 23-room house that John and Anna Deems built as a showplacp is at the end of its reign, and for some there will be a sense of loss, of something thought to be so permanent which is now so fragile.The mansion’s owners are tearing it down because it has fallen too deeply into disrepair to be saved.Whiteacres, a partnership of six Burlington men headed by Vernon H. Brinck, made the decision to demolish the house. The site will eventually be used for commercial development. A smaller two story house next door which once served as living quarters for farm workers will be preserved.As chairman of the board of International Harvester, Deems, a railroader turned industrialist, transformed it into the first mechanized farm in Iowa, if not west of the Mississippi river.The home is being tom down board by board by Preston Butler, a local contractor. Much of the framing lumber and fixtures will be saved, Brinck said. The site will be leveled and returned to farmland, just as it was for 60 years before Deems built the mansion in 1918.Brinck said the house has fallen into disrepair and has been vandalized extensively in recent years. Its last resident was Richard Weyrick, but since 1976 the home has been unocuppied.Renovation was considered, Brinck said, but it would be too costly, and there apparently is no one willing to invest in its restoration.Whiteacres is still paying property taxes as though it were a liveable residence, he said. Once valued at $75,000, the home is now carried on the assessor’s roles at $32,576. Assessor Paul Rynell said the house’s value was gradually lowered as its condition deteriorated.There is no chance for a reprieve, Brinck said, “We haven’t had any offers anyway.”Brinck said the 70 acres on the homesite, situated between Iowa 406 (Agency Rd.) and US 534, is zoned commerial. The land is worth more than the house, said Brinck. “Nobody wants to live in a commercial area.”Tuesday night the wrecking crew received a slightly belated formal approval by the city council. Workers have been removing the interior for some time. Brinck said the house will be leveled by Feb. 1.John Francis Deems started his career as an employee of the Burlington Railroad. He later became an executive of the New York Central Railroadand eventually rose to the position of chairman of board of International Harvester.He filled the house with some of the most elegant furnishings Europe’s master craftsmen had to offer — expensive chandeliers, furniture and woodwork from Germany’s Black Forest.None of that grandeur remains, Brinck said. Vandals have even stolen the brass doorknobs.Deems had some of the International Harvester’s first tractors tested on the original 160-acre farm.Ownership of the Deems farm has changed several times, with the price each time approaching the highest levels paid for Iowa farm land.In 1865 the site was owned by the Leonard family. In 1905 the Leonards sold the tract to Anna Deems, formerly of New York City. The mansion was built 13 years later by local carpenters.In 1941 the house and land passed to Roy Murphy, the Deems’ foster son. In 1950, Ernest Caldwell bought the farm and 22 years later Whiteacres Inc. bought it.Whiteacres Inc. has since dissolved as a corporation and is now listed by the county recorder’s office as a partnership with Vernon Brinck as chief agent.According to Brinck, other members of Whiteacres are Charles Walsh Sr., Robert Baker, Dr. Winston B. Ditto, Marshall Markey and Bruce Worden.Mrs. Gladys Fritz, 909 N. Seventh, and her husband Philip lived in the smaller frame house next to the mansion from 1925-38. Philip Fritz was the“houseman” then. He tended the gardens and flowers and did chores.Mrs. Fritz was a housewife and the couple raised their children on the farm. “I liked every year out there. It was a nice place to work. We enjoyed it because we were basically country people.”The mansion’s impending demolition “is a shame,” Mrs. Fritz said Thursday. She recalled the Deems’ as “elegant, charitable people.”In the glory years there were gala parties at the mansion, she said. “They were elegant entertainers.”John Francis Deems was a charitable man. she said. Each Christmas he would see that four needy families were provided fuel for the winter, clothing and food. “They were people he knew who needed help.”Another longtime West Burlington resident who was the Deems’ neighbor recalled Anna Deems as a a gentle woman who loved children.Asking not to be identified, the woman said Anna Deems would often pick up children in her chauffer-driven car and take them to school so they wouldn’t have to walk through the wet grass or along the muddy roads.“She was gentle, sweet and modest. If anybody ever wanted or needed anything we knew where it would come from.”The last remnant of the grandeur, the charity and the gentle life is now finally at an end.Deems Farm will soon be no more than a memory, sweeter for some than others, but for all who have seen it, assuredly a part of history.ght’ for themnd read the Bible in their native people simply settled around the beer-laden vehicle, aid. And there is the town of Alice Springs in the heartans have a “grotesque mis- outback known as ‘The Alice,” where the an-iborigine languages, believing that nufll Henley on Thames Dry Boat Regatta is held.Tko .nnnHn Jo o oo C of 1.. 13 A
Newspaper Details
Burlington Hawk Eye
Burlington, Iowa, US
Thu, Dec 28, 1978
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Burlington P.
IA, USA 31 Dec 2023
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