KYLE MUNSON

Iowa's free, century-old farmhouse finds a new home

Kyle Munson
The Des Moines Register

A century-old Iowa farmhouse meandered online for years just so it could move a dozen miles within the same county to be saved from the wrecking ball. 

But this is how we communicate in the modern era. We may keep a tight grip on our smartphones, but the whims of our wandering attention on any given day can be wildly unpredictable. 

So it was that Roger Dolecheck's offer of a free farmhouse to anybody willing to move it languished on Craigslist.

Jeff Dooley has agreed to move Roger and Linda Dolecheck 's old farmhouse for free off their farm.

Then, suddenly, the vacant southern Iowa house last week got snapped up in a matter of days. The alchemy of Facebook and a smattering of paragraphs from yours truly sparked a wider circle of interest that led to a man in Minnesota named Jeff Dooley. 

"The neighbor lady that owns the farm across from ours texted it to me," said Dooley, who was busy rehabbing another house in Anoka, Minn. 

Dooley, 55, a professional house flipper, was born in Nevada, Iowa. When he was 5, his parents whisked the family away to Minnesota.

But he always longed to migrate back south and spent summers on his grandfather's farm in Ringgold County — land that remains in the family. He cherishes those southern Iowa acres and plans to retire there.

But the original house on Dooley's farmstead was razed. In its place stands a mice-infested mobile home that serves as a makeshift cabin for fishing and hunting trips.

Jeff Dooley of Minnesota has agreed to move a Ringgold County farmhouse, offered free on Craigslist, to his family farmstead also in Ringgold County, just east of Mount Ayr. The house will replace the trailer home seen in this photo.

Dooley had long been searching for a vintage farmhouse to add to his dream property when his southern Iowa neighbor texted a picture of Dolecheck's house she saw on Facebook.

"This," he said to himself, "is absolutely perfect."

Dooley was so intrigued that he drove all the way down to Dolecheck's farm Friday to seal the deal. He's arranging to move the house in January.

Dolecheck was thrilled to find so close at hand what seemed like an ideal solution for what had been his own growing family's beloved home for a generation.  

"It’ll be a cheaper option" than building a new house on his late grandfather's land, Dooley said, "and it’s a historic house."

When I first wrote about the house, I mentioned how the Dolechecks had lovingly restored the woodwork and other details.

The house also has ties to agricultural history through its former owners, the family of Raymond F. Baker, the crop scientist whose work helped establish the Pioneer Hi-Bred seed empire. 

Since that column published, I've also heard from a blogger who's convinced that the house is a prime specimen of the Sears No. 118 mail-order kit home that was all the rage in the early 20th century. 

Dooley, a divorced dad of four adult children ages 21 to 32, looks forward to spending summers with his family in his newfound rural bargain.

Not only does Dooley claim to be committed to the house no matter the obstacles, he already has scouted the entire route that it must travel and lined up an Iowa building mover to do the job in January. 

A southern Iowa farmhouse more than a century old that was offered for free on Craigslist -- and captured the fascination of Facebook users -- has found a new home mere miles from its original spot. It will sit alongside this old barn that the owner also plans to rehab.

When the house settles onto its new foundation, it will sit alongside Dooley's next project: His grandfather's weather-beaten red barn that he intends to restore. 

Thus one native Iowan will boomerang back to the rural life he loves, on a farmstead painstakingly pieced together from the remnants of Ringgold County. 

Kyle Munson, Iowa columnist.

Kyle Munson can be reached at 515-284-8124 or kmunson@dmreg.com. See more of his columns and video at DesMoinesRegister.com/KyleMunson. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@KyleMunson).