The Mansion on the Hill
Terrace Hill rises above Grand Avenue in Des Moines, its mansard roof and tall tower still commanding a view of the prairie sky. When it was completed in the late 1860s, the house was a spectacle.
Few places in the Midwest had running water, gaslight, or an elevator. Benjamin Franklin Allen wanted all three, and he got them.
He had started life as an orphan in Indiana, worked his way into banking and land speculation, and by his thirties was Iowa's first millionaire.
Terrace Hill was to be the proof of it, a French Second Empire palace built on a 29-acre hilltop overlooking the growing city.
Chicago architect William W. Boyington designed the mansion. He was already known for his fashionable style and would later design the Chicago Water Tower.
He drew up a house with a 90-foot entrance tower, four marble mantels carved in Chicago, a sweeping staircase crafted by local carpenters, and modern plumbing that no farmhouse in Iowa could match.
Allen hired landscape gardener J. T. Elletson to shape the grounds.
By 1869, the estate was finished, at a cost of about $250,000 - nearly six million in today's money. That year, 700 guests attended the Allens' housewarming.
They wandered through gas-lit rooms, drank champagne, and left talking about the marvel on the hill.
The Rise of Benjamin Allen
Allen was born in 1829. Orphaned at four, he grew up in Ohio with relatives, never receiving a formal education.
What he did have was restlessness and an instinct for opportunity. At 17, he enlisted briefly in the military.
At 19, he arrived in Des Moines to claim a small inheritance from an uncle.
The frontier town had only a couple of hundred residents, but Allen began to build businesses almost immediately.
He opened a general store, then a steam sawmill to supply lumber. Within a decade, he moved into banking and real estate.
He bought land by the square mile and was known for financing nearly any venture that came his way.
In 1857, when a financial panic swept the country, Allen personally guaranteed the debts of local businesses to keep them afloat. The gesture made him a hero in Des Moines.
By 1860, the population had grown to nearly 4,000, and Allen's role in attracting banks, mines, and railroads made him one of the city's leading citizens.
He was elected to the state senate, where he pushed for a new state capitol building. By the mid-1860s, he was said to be worth between $4 and $12 million.
A House of Cards
Allen's fortune was tied to speculation. He held $500,000 in bonds entrusted to him by a court to finance railroad expansion into Iowa.
Instead of safeguarding the funds, he borrowed against them for his own land and business deals.
It was a gamble that worked as long as the economy was rising.
In 1873, the economy faltered. The Panic of 1873 spread across the country, undermining land and railroad values.
The railroad trust wanted its money back, but Allen had sunk it into projects that were collapsing.
In a desperate move, he purchased a controlling interest in the Cook County National Bank of Chicago and made himself president.
The plan was to use the bank to cover the missing money. Instead, it failed within two years.
By January 1875, the bank had collapsed, creditors were circling, and Allen's vast fortune was gone. He was never accused of outright swindling, but his reputation never recovered.
Local newspapers that had once praised him as Iowa's first millionaire now printed stories of lawsuits and foreclosures.
The Hubbell Years
Allen clung to Terrace Hill for nearly a decade after his financial collapse, but by 1884, he was forced to sell.
Frederick M. Hubbell, a Des Moines businessman, bought the mansion and its remaining 8 acres for $60,000.
The Hubbells updated the house to suit changing times. They installed a stained glass window over the grand staircase, replaced lighting fixtures, and later electrified the home.
In the 1920s, Grover Hubbell modernized the structure, strengthening its foundation and installing a new elevator.
A swimming pool was added on the east side in 1928. The house remained a family residence for decades, though by the mid-20th century, it was becoming difficult to maintain.
After 1957, Terrace Hill stood empty. The Hubbells continued to own it, but no longer lived there.
As Des Moines grew, the once-remote estate was now at the heart of the city. The question of what to do with such a large property loomed.
From Mansion to Statehouse
By the late 1960s, Iowa's governor still lived in a small, inadequate residence.
The Hubbell family, recognizing the house's historic importance, decided to donate Terrace Hill to the state in 1971.
It was a gift that saved the mansion from demolition and secured its place in public life.
The state began careful restoration work, balancing the needs of a working residence with the preservation of historic detail.
In 1976, Governor Robert D. Ray and his family became the first to occupy Terrace Hill as the official governor's residence.
Since then, each Iowa governor has lived in the house.
The mansion has also become a site for tours, events, and public programs. Schoolchildren walk through the same rooms where Allen once entertained 700 guests.
Visitors take in the view from the hilltop, looking out over Des Moines, just as Allen did when the city was little more than a few thousand residents.
Legacy of a Symbol
Terrace Hill is a monument to ambition and risk. It reflects the optimism of a man who rose from orphanhood to fortune, but also the fragility of wealth built on speculation.
For Iowa, the house became more than a symbol of one man's rise and fall.
It is now a landmark that connects generations to the state's history.
In 1972, Terrace Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2003, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
The designations recognize not only the architecture but also the story that unfolded within its walls.
The Allens' glamorous housewarming in 1869, the Hubbells' renovations in the 20th century, and the state's stewardship in the 21st all add layers to its history.
Today, the tower still rises above Grand Avenue, the carved marble mantels still gleam, and the wide staircase still curves upward.
Terrace Hill is both a home and a public treasure, its past inseparable from the history of Iowa itself.