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History of Waterloo Iowa Driving Tour
Item 9 of 10

Local pharmacist William Snowden built this elegant historic home in 1881. A fine example of Victorian Italianate architecture, it is now used as wedding and event venue and is also a part of the Grout Museum District. The two-story house features a porch with thin wooden posts and decorative arching stickwork, a hip roof with a shallow gable, bracketed eaves, windows with decorative hoodmolds, and an arched main entrance. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.


The Snowden House was built in 1881 by pharmacist William Snowden. It is a fine example of Victorian Italianate architecture and is now a wedding and event venue.

Sky, Building, Window, House

Snowden, his wife Delia, and three daughters didn't live in the house during the winter. It was too difficult to heat it so they lived in the apartment above Snowden's pharmacy. As a result, the house became known as the Snowden Summer Home. The house became a popular place for young people to meet and immerse themselves in culture and music. The drawing room had a piano and many children took piano lessons at the house.

Snowden died in 1889 and Delia became the owner. It appears that Delia then sold it to Lillian Russell Lamson who, along with her husband Clyde, helped financed the construction of the former Hotel Russell-Lamson. In 1922, the Waterloo Women's Club bought the house and owned it until, it appears, 1984 when the Snowden House Foundation acquired it. The house became a part of the Grout Museum District in 1997.

Conklin, Charlene. "Snowden House." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. September 14, 1977. https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/77000498_text.

"History of the Museum." Grout Museum District. Accessed September 7, 2021. https://www.groutmuseumdistrict.org/sites-exhibits/snowden-house/history-of-museum.aspx.

Image Sources(Click to expand)

Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snowden_House_Front_pic1.JPG