Just east of Radar O’Rielly’s home town of Ottumwa, Iowa is a tiny little town called Eldon. You make a few turns down some narrow little lanes and there at the end of one road is the house from the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. It’s a lot smaller than I expected, though to be honest, until I saw in noted on the map, I had never given it any thought at all.
American Gothic is one of the most paradied images of all time with hundreds of people and things standing in for the grumpy couple in front of the farm house. One of my favorite episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show has Dick and Laura finding an unknown copy of the painting with the couple smiling. It turned out to be a fake.
I was suprised to find that the little welcome center for the house had a collection of pitchforks, overalls, and dresses so that visitors could dress like the people in the painting. These are stage outfits that just fit over your regular clothes and take only moments to don. The nice ladies that work there will even follow you out and take your photo in front of the house. Way cool.
The shop has the usual assortment of items, magnets, t-shirts, and so on and so forth. There is also a tiny little museum that tells about Grant Wood and American Gothic. Of special interest to nerds like us was a photo of a couple dressed as Klingons having their photo taken in front of the house. A favorite recent parady has Sheldon and Amy from Big Bang Theory in front of the house.
While it’s not exactly a destination in it’s own right, the American Gothic House is certainly worth stopping by for a look if you happen to be in the area.
That is the Wife and me in the above photo taken by one of the ladies at the shop.
