American Gothic House Center — Attraction in Eldon

BEWARE!!! VERY RUDE STAFF. WILL CHARGE EVERYONE INCLUDING OLD PEOPLE TO USE RESTROOMS. THEN SAY IF YOU DONT LIKE IT DONT COME IN BUILDING. ALSO WILL SPY ON YOU AS YOU WALK AROUND VIA CAMERAS, AND MAKE SNARKY REMARKS. LOTS OF BAD REVIEWS FROM FACEBOOK RECENTLY SINCE THEY ADDED THE VISITOR CENTER. THEY APPARENTLY WERE NICER BEFORE THEY ADDED THE ADMISSION FEES AND ALL THE STRICT RULES.

I'm giving this place 1 star due to the fact that the old blonde woman who works there is very rude. She made my elderly father pay $5 to use the restroom. She said he needed to pay the admission which only included a tiny room ("museum") with a few pictures and articles. The actual house can be seen for free from the parking lot. She also spies on you with her multiple cameras. At one point asking me she thought I was going to enter the women's restroom as I walked past it. Then strictly following a 3:30 pm cut off time to dress as the farmer from the painting to take the photo, she yelled we had to be done by 4. At 3:45 she runs outside yelling we had to leave due to an impending storm coming. We couldn't even look inside at the museum since she hurried us out and closed early at 3:50.

Your reply proves how arrogant and rude you and your employees are to the guests that come to visit. First of all, you DONT OWN the house and ARE NOT doing anyone any favors by letting them come to see it. The city historical society oversees it for public viewing. It even says you can come anytime and take photos. You are cold hearted A-holes since you said that the water in the toilet and soap by the sink costs money, which is why you charge elderly people to use it. Yes, it's only $4 admission but how petty to mention the cost of toilet water and paper to maintain a restroom. I had no problem paying the $5 since I wanted to borrow the costume for a picture. You apparently have mental issues if you keep bringing up I should have read the website. I DID READ IT and it nowhere mentions you charge for each flush of your toilet. Again what a cold hearted person you are to suggest that elderly people should have planned their bathroom timing better if they didn't want to pay $4. He should have peed on your floor right by your register. Also there were 2 SINGLE RESTROOMS. So no sense to have a men only or women only restroom. You had ZERO other visitors in the building, so bringing up possible situations is meaningless and ignorant on your part about kids or women being in their. If that was the case then the bathroom WOULD HAVE BEEN LOCKED. People are coming ONLY TO SEE THE HOUSE AND TAKE A PICTURE. They can read the 45 seconds of info online if they want to know about the painter. The "museum" is a joke that anyone can attest to. You are totally wrong from your first word to your last in your reply. You should be grateful anyone wants to come to your stinking little town and goes out of their way to drive there. I regret buying shirts and other soveiners from your shop. You aren't used to people like me being honest and telling you outright how things should be. Yes I said in the place that you all should be nicer to customers who pay your salaries. It seems you think your rudeness should be accepted by naive tourists and tolerated. I'm from the big city and we don't take crap from...

Iconic for American culture, the American Gothic house was made famous by the enigmatic painting by Grant Wood. However, it's a significance reaches far beyond a mere representational device. The cottage is static, seemingly stuck in time in the 1860s or so. Board and batten siding and the large Gothic Attic Window are the only true Gothic touches. The vernacular architecture is simple and austere. It represents the balance of both refinement/ culture; and the hardships of homesteading in the early days of white settlement in early Iowa. These themes are directly translated into Grant Wood's painting. The stern and perturbed expression of the man. The careworn and resigned expression of his wife. The modest adornment of the brooch on her neck and her dress pattern reflected in the window curtains. Both the painting, and the place, perfectly encapsulate the following: the American push for more, and the impulse to stay the same. Willful dominance and hesitant submission. Assuredness and second-guessing. The passage of time and the static nature of place. Unfulfilled desires vs. security. Gender roles and cultural expectations. And much much more! Truly worth visiting, although the place is small and Spartan so don't...

Don't waste your time or money. The museum is not worth the admission, Free & Time. Its not the exhibits that are the problem, its the staff. We found this by accident, as we were driving Route 1/16. We saw the BLUE sign which clearly states Visitor Center Exit 199 so we took the exit. Once we arrived and went in we asked the Lady, who was nice and helpful, at the front desk where the visitors center was and she said this was it, she said she understood the confusion as the American Gothic House signs are in Brown but the Visitor Center sign was not. Then the so-called Boss came around the corner and stated the Visitor Center sign is Brown, I replied No its Blue, would you like for me to go get the video? She took offense to being told she was in error and snaped back I don't like being talk to like that so I asked her name, she said she was "The Boss" and we left, with our money in our wallet. She was quite rude and as anyone can see the sign is clearly BLUE. Even though Blue and Brown begin with the same letter, that's where the similarities end. The owner should retrain "The Boss" and remind her not to belittle or ridicule the customers, they are the way the...