Hello readers and Merry Christmas!
It’s December which means it’s time for another holiday B & B review. To be honest, I was not sure I was going to be able to do a holiday review this year due to the timing of the family Christmas gatherings, but I managed to get lucky when I checked out the reservations site for the Grand Anne of Keokuk, IA and found they were wide open for the month of December. I quickly snagged a room and prepared for another Christmas jaunt.
Keokuk is noted for being the southernmost city in the state of Iowa. So southern is the city that the states of Illinois and Missouri are mere minutes away. It also has quite a bit of history nestled in its environs. Howard Hughes’ grandfather, Rupert, was the mayor of this town once upon a time and, at one point, Keokuk had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the country.
Keokuk was notable to me for one reason. When I was a strapping lad the town of Palmer, IA was an unstoppable powerhouse in high school basketball having gone undefeated for 4 years. Keokuk’s basketball team ended up being the giant slayer as they stopped Palmer in that year’s state tournament and Palmer BB was never quite the same again.
But I digress. It was a frozen Friday that I began my journey. I was very excited as I could make the drive using nothing but one highway so I figured the road would take me through a lot of small towns. I was surprisingly wrong on this score as I did go through a few small towns, but far fewer than one would expect for a nearly 5 ½ hour drive.
I arrived in Keokuk a little earlier than expected and looked for something to do until I could check in. As I traveled towards the inn, I spied a little salon called Laura’s Hair Company and decided to stop for a haircut as I had left town before getting a much needed trim.
Laura was a very interesting barber who knew quite a bit about the town, even sharing the story of an allegedly haunted house on Grand Avenue where Grand Anne was located. She also gave me the best haircut I’ve had in years, trimming my hair to absolutely perfect length.
After the relaxing haircut, I popped in at the local library (nicely stocked for a small town) and skimmed a novel until I could check in at Grand Anne.
The Grand Anne, owned by Kent and Cassie Barrett with caretaking done by Rick and Cretia Hesse, is the very picture that pops into your head when you think about B & Bs. It’s a 22 room Grand Anne mansion designed by George F. Barber who built his fortune designing mail order homes. He would send people the plans for the house with sheets of graph paper and ask for a rough sketch of any changes to be made to be drawn on the graph paper and mailed back to him. He would then draw the changes to scale and go back and forth until the people buying the home were satisfied. At that point, the buyers could either build the homes themselves or Barber would sell them the materials and rent out the help to build the home. For a fun bit of trivia, Barber had no formal training in architecture, yet 2,000 buildings he designed are still standing today.
Barber designed the Grand Anne for Clyde Royal Joy, a managing director of SF Baker and Company, a pharmaceutical firm, in 1897 for the astonishing price of $12,500 (modern day equivalent of nearly $360,000). The house is worth much more than the modern day equivalency as Joy spared no expense on the home. To give you an idea of its modern day value, the wood used in the parlor costs more than $12,500 today.
When I arrived at the inn, I found a piece of paper and a key for my room sticking to the front door. I walked into the foyer and instantly felt at home. The Grand Anne is easily one of my favorite inns that I’ve stayed at as it is a classic B & B, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since the Victorian Villa. I headed upstairs to Clyde’s Retreat, the one time master bedroom and my base of operations. It’s one of the most spacious rooms I’ve had with some very comfortable chairs and a plushy bed. All I needed was a fireplace and a sidekick and I’ve would have felt like Sherlock Holmes.
After unpacking my gear, I wandered around the mansion, enjoying the Christmas trees and decorations, especially a Christmas village located on the Steinway piano in the music room. I then donned my coat and took a walk around Grand Avenue.
Grand Avenue was once the Millionaire’s Row of the city as that is where the expensive and ritzy homes were built. I later learned that a 72 room mansion once filled the six blocks next to Grand Anne costing an eye popping $1 million back in 1887 (modern day equivalent of $25 million!!). Regrettably, that home only lasted for 30 years and not a trace of it exists.
It was still mighty cold outside so I headed back to Grand Anne to warm up for a bit before heading out to dinner. I decided to give the Hawkeye Restaurant a try. This eatery is known for a pork tenderloin sandwich that was deemed best in the country by USA Today. If I could have preserved one I’d have taken it back to Omaha as that is my pop’s favorite sandwich.
The restaurant is quite popular as it was jammed to the rafters when I arrived. I managed to get seated in the lounge where I ordered jerk chicken with a cup of their “World Famous” Wisconsin cheese soup and a side of fries. The soup was remarkable. It had a bit of a kick to it and truly was the best cup of Wisconsin cheese soup I had ever tasted. The fries were crisp and the chicken was served on a bed of rice with fried jalapenos. It was pretty good, but I expected a lot more spice for a Caribbean dish. It had the hint of authentic jerk chicken, but needed to go a bit further with it.
After the meal, I decided to drive around the town to see what they might have for lighting displays and was surprised to see that very few homes actually set up anything on the outside. I drove to the farthest end of Grand Avenue and then saw the mother of all lighting displays.
The display was in a place called Rand City Park and it was called the City of Christmas. I drove through the park in awe of the incredible display which was sponsored by many of the local businesses. I saw Biblical displays, winter displays, and a section dedicated to the beloved Christmas specials of my childhood. Definitely worth a visit if you are in Keokuk around Christmas.
City of Christmas
Once I had traveled through the City of Christmas, I returned to my room where I watched a DVD and then curled up in my cushiony queen bed and slept the night away under the soft glow of my Christmas tree.
The Grand Anne is famed for its 4 course gourmet breakfasts and I was very much looking forward to it the next morning. At 8:30 I went downstairs to the dining room where I enjoyed Cretia’s fine cooking which included a freshly squeezed special orange juice blend of the inn’s, a lemon muffin, grapes & yogurt, and chili egg bake with baked bacon. I had fellow guests this time and spent a rather enjoyable few hours sharing conversation. Afterwards we went up to the Billiards Room on the mansion’s first floor where we learned we all had the same level of skill in pool. That is to say, we all stunk. But it was still fun to play.
When the game was done, I bundled up, hopped into my car, and drove to nearby Nauvoo, IL.
Nauvoo is a Mormon settlement built by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saints, and his followers. When they first arrived, it was a malaria ridden swamp land and they built it up to a bustling community of 50,000, the second largest city in Illinois at one point before the assassination of Joseph Smith ended up scattering the Church of Christ. Today the town only has a population of 1,100 but it does an impressive job of preserving its history.
I stopped in the Joseph Smith Visitors Center where I paid for a tour of Old Nauvoo. My tour guide was Don who was a fount of knowledge about the history of the area as he showed me around the old homes of Joseph Smith and told me about the history of the area. One thing I learned it aside from the history was that those old homes were built to last. The old homes kept the cold outside without virtue of any of our modern conveniences.
The tour ended in the Red Brick Store which sells books, old fashioned candies, and even a famed “home brewed” root beer. The quotes are because it’s actually made in Ohio, but it is quite tasty nonetheless. After my tour I drove to the top of the city to look at the rebuilt Mormon Temple before returning to Keokuk. Nauvoo also has year round wagon rides and nightly shows. In the summer there’s quite a bit more to do, so if I’m in the region again during that season, I’ll be sure to give it another visit.
I returned to the inn and relaxed for about an hour before heading to worship services at the Church of All Saints. This church was like stepping into a time warp as the inside reminded me of Sacred Heart, a church I sometimes attended back in Fort Dodge, IA with a priest that reminded me of my favorite pastor, Father Richard Kielbasa AKA Father K AKA The Rock. Yep. Before Dwayne Johnson, the original Rock was Father K and they both shared the same charisma.
Originally, I had planned to go back to Nauvoo to eat the buffet dinner at the famed Hotel Nauvoo, but discovered they stopped serving for the season in mid-November. Instead I visited Beef, Bread, and Brew in Keokuk. It’s a small, quiet restaurant known for its weekend buffets (seafood on Friday, Prime Rib on Saturday, and a Grand Buffet on Sunday). I opted for a filet mignon with a side of lattice fries and included a trip to the soup and salad bar. I tried a cup of their Wisconsin cheese soup, but it was just OK. It needed to be a little hotter and lacked the zip of the previous night’s soup. The salad was excellent as was the filet mignon which was cooked to perfection and was nice and juicy.
When dinner was done, it was back to the inn where Rick gave us a 2.5 tour of the mansion. He was a great storyteller and knew every intimate detail of the house and quite a bit about the town’s history. He has quite a few interesting stories including the “Story of the Bullet Hole”. One amusing story I’ll share is that of the golf ball riddled door. The inn’s second owner was Judge Huiskamp who was an avid golfer (also a good friend of Bing Crosby who often came to Keokuk to play golf with the judge). Back in the day, the third floor was a ballroom and the judge set up a net to practice his hitting. He never missed the net, but his children often did pelting the walls and door of the now Tower Suite with golf balls. The door to the Tower Suite is the original and is just riddled with golf ball divots.
When the tour was done, I returned to my home to begin writing, but a stuck e key curtailed that so I decided to call it a night.
I slept right through the night. When I awoke the next day, I checked my e key and found it to be working again so I drew a relaxing bath before heading downstairs to breakfast.
The first courses were similar to the previous day’s though the fruit was kiwi and the muffin was cherry. The main entrée was a delicious egg soufflé with cheddar cheese, chives, and mushrooms with some more baked bacon. Once more I engaged in pleasant conversation until it was time to get back to work and head for home.
Egg souffle with baked bacon
Another splendid visitation is in the books. The Grand Anne was truly a grand experience and I highly suggest a visit if you find yourself in town. You’ll experience a classic bed and breakfast with some truly superb meals and can take a dive into history at the same time. Have a blessed and happy Christmas!
Chris' Corner 