In the 1930s, artist Grant Wood sketched a peculiar small house with a "pretentious" Gothic church window in the front. He later enshrined the house in his painting American Gothic. That house still stands in Eldon, Iowa, and is owned by the State Historical Society. From 2010 to 2014, Beth Howard lived in the house for $250 a month. The rent was cheap because the house is small, is in Eldon, Iowa, and 15,000 tourists visit it every year -which can be a hassle at times.
I eventually got used to being woken by laughter and high-beam headlights shining toward it in the middle of the night when travelers wanted a photo. Sometimes I would turn on the light and give them a scare — who would expect anyone to be living there?
By day, a steady stream of tourists came, posing for pictures (and peeking in the windows) dressed in the free costumes provided by the visitor center — calico smocks with cameos, overalls and black jackets, even the spectacles — and wielding pitchforks of all sizes. They brought their own props, which included a prized Harley Davidson, a fleet of Stanley steam cars, and a herd of llamas. It was the centerpiece of a Klingon calendar shoot, a bare-chested rock band’s album cover, a marriage proposal, a family reunion — a gamut of creativity daily.
Howard talks about the quirks of the preserved 1881 house, and the adventure of living there, at The New York Times. Yes, there are pictures of the inside. -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Flickr user Carl Wycoff)