It was listed, misspelled as the Linsay House, on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

[1] The house was built in 1893 by John Jayne, an Iowa City bridge builder.

The plans for the 2½-story, frame, Queen Anne were purchased from George F. Barber and Co.[2] It features a chimney that takes up an entire corner of the main facade, a stone arch that surrounds the first-floor window with leaded glass in a sunflower pattern, a wrap-around porch with a corner turret, and a three-story octagonal tower behind it.

Jayne gave the house as a wedding gift to his daughter, Ella, and her husband, John Granger Lindsay.

[5][6] Berkeley Breathed, who wrote the comic strip Bloom County, called the house one of "the ugliest houses in the five-state area... Six different architectural styles in one house is a milestone at least and at most a landmark to bad taste".