Roseanne House

Eldon, Iowa

Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold’s abandoned mansion

There was the Roseanne house in Evansville, Indiana used for the exterior Roseanne show shots. And then there was another Roseanne house in Iowa. It was left abandoned, to rot and decay.

These photos of the mansion were taken by Ray Kasal in 2012 on a special showing before the land was sold by Indian Hills College to a private owner. Ray Kasal on Flickr

Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold were married in 1990, and had met years earlier and worked together on The Roseanne show. In 1993, Tom and Roseanne decided to build a country retreat outside Eldon, Iowa which is near Ottumwa where Tom grew up. The pair opened a diner in Eldon named Roseanne and Tom’s Big Food Diner.

The Diner, featuring loose meat sandwiches like on the Roseanne Show, was a converted pizzeria the couple had purchased for $125,000.00 in Eldon. It was only a few miles from their recently purchased 1,700 acre farm. The diner was modeled after the Lunch Box eatery on the Roseanne show. Perhaps the main reason for opening the joint, was they wanted food after 6 pm. The other restaurant in town closed at 6. On March 13-14, 1993 Tom and Roseanne were guest chefs at the grand opening. After the divorce was settled, the diner closed in 1995. The building is long gone now, and the location was turned into a parking lot.

Canteen Lunch in the Alley

The Lunchbox on Roseanne’s show was modeled after Canteen Lunch in Ottumwa, Iowa. It is still in business and is a national landmark. Even a parking garage was built over it instead of moving it or demolishing it. They still serve up loose meat sandwiches, malts and pie a la mode.

While overseeing work on the mansion the Arnold’s camped in a luxurious house trailer. They planted pink flamingos and had cut out wooden pigs outside. Tom and Roseanne rode around on 4 wheelers and horses on their rural farm while the building began. The home was going to be a victorian style mansion with an estimated cost of 16 million dollars. It was going to be the largest most expensive single home in Iowa at a total of 28,000 square feet. The basement was slated to have an olympic sized indoor pool, a four lane bowling alley, and a screening room. They did build a 100 x 60 steel barn to host lavish parties, complete with horse troughs filled with shrimp on ice.

The split

As news broke of trouble in the marriage in 1994, construction was halted. The progress was put on hold until further notice. As the couple divorced, neither Tom or Roseanne wanted to pay to finish the home. In 1995, the land and unfinished home was gifted to Indian Hills Community College. The land was sold in 2012 to a private owner. The decaying mansion now sits in the middle of a farm, far from any roads. It is rotting and decaying and will continue to be a relic of past days when a Hollywood couple stormed into sleepy Eldon, Iowa. It will cost too much to demolish and remove the unfinished mansion, so for now, nature is reclaiming the land it sits on.

A big thank you to Ray Kasal for allowing me to display his photos. Check out his work on Flickr

Google maps photos: Google maps

All other photos by abandonedexplorers.com ©

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