Health & Fitness
Des Moines' Salisbury House, Mitt Romney's Six Homes and the 2012 Presidential Election
What's the political significance of the DM Salisbury House and Romney's six homes?
How Much Home is Enough?
There are two kinds of people who fail to recognize, and respond to, Iowa's tourist attractions: (1) those who live in Iowa, and (2) those who don't.
The area around Des Moines, the state capital located in the center of the state, has a rich cluster of attractions. During a 32-hour stay in Des Moines last weekend, I explored what was, for me, a new one -- although built in the mid-1920s -- called the "Salisbury House."
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Supported by the Salisbury House Foundation, the structure is the creation of Carl Weeks and his wife Edith.
Born in 1876, Weeks created the Armand cosmetics company in 1915. Buying cold cream by the barrel, face powder by the ton, and perfume by the gallon -- which he then sold by the ounce in attractive containers -- produced enough profit in 8 years for him to begin building this 9-plus-acre lot, house, art and antique collection for $3 million 1920s dollars.
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How much would that be in today's dollars? My rule of thumb -- based on 1930s prices for candy bars, ice cream cones, and automobiles (standard Fords and Chevrolets were then $500-700) -- is that most things have increased by at least 20 to 30 times. In today's dollars that would make the cost of building Salisbury House and buying its contents -- if they could even be found today -- somewhere between $60 and $100 million.
There are many reasons why the Salisbury House is worth a visit -- the Steinway in its hand-carved body, the surround-sound organ built into the house itself, a tapestry and a suit of armor from the 1500s, the shrunken heads collection, the rare book room.
But that's not all.
So what does Salisbury House have to do with Romney's six homes, and our next presidential election?
-- For a continuation of this discussion, including pictures of the Salisbury House, Romney's six homes, and an analysis of the political, economic and social implications of what they have in common, click here: http://fromdc2iowa.blogspot.com/2012/05/homes-weeks-salisbury-romneys-six.html.