Roseanne’s Former Iowa Home Is In Ruins
The premiere of the new 'Roseanne' reboot scored around 18 million viewers last week, and has already prompted the ABC network to renew it for a second season.
It's also giving new attention to the actress' past ties to Iowa.
You might remember that for several years she was married to Iowa native, and actor/comedian Tom Arnold. It turns out the two were in the process of building a rural mansion here in the state, near Eldon, until their divorce in 1994. They donated the property to the Indian Hills Community College Foundation, which is operated by Arnold's alma mater, who later sold it to Florida-based MJW Hawkeye, LLC, who has a division in Iowa.
The manager of the property, which sits on 1,338 acres and includes six other rented homes and one owned by a local Eldon resident, says the building being constructed by Barr and Arnold wasn't demolished at the time because it would have cost too much to do so. So it still sits, crumbling, incomplete and unfinished, with no plans to speak of by the owner to do anything with it. In fact, some reports say the mansion itself remains as nothing but rubble surrounded by the other homes on the property.
The owner, Darrell Limkeman had even informally invited Roseanne to stop by and spend time at the mansion, and there has been lots of tourist interest in visiting over the years, but those visitors were likely disappointed to see the mansion has faltered.
[Via KDAT, KDAT, Wikipedia, Des Moines Register]