Iowa’s First Mansard Roof: The E. H. Harrison House Ghost

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated September 2, 2026 · How we verify

Stories about the E. H. Harrison House ghost are unusually mild for a building of its age and stature. The word attached to it, in the brief published accounts, is friendly. The one complication is that this friendly presence is also said to have chased a tenant out of the building. That contradiction is about the extent of the record, and it sits on top of one of the more architecturally significant houses in Keokuk, Iowa.

Quick facts: built in 1857, designed by local architect Frederick H. Moore, constructed by local builder R.P. Gray, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Three Styles on One Facade

The Harrison House does not commit to a single architectural vocabulary. It combines Federal, Greek Revival, and Second Empire elements, which is unusual enough on its own for a house of the 1850s. The Federal influence shows in the large windows, the elliptical arch over the doorway, the bowed two-story front bay, and the brickwork. The Greek Revival contribution is the offset doorway.

The Second Empire element is the roof, and it is the reason the house matters beyond Keokuk. It is believed to be the first house in Iowa to have a mansard roof, a form that would go on to define American public and domestic building for the next two decades. Additions were later built onto the back of the house, though their dates are not recorded.

The Self-Supporting Staircase Inside

The interior holds a claim that is repeated often and difficult to verify: an open, two-story, self-supporting staircase said to be one of only seven in existence in the United States. Treat the number as tradition rather than a surveyed fact. What is not in dispute is that the staircase is a genuine piece of 1850s craftsmanship, built without visible support carrying it from below.

Who Enos H. Harrison Was

The man who commissioned the house was Enos H. Harrison, a successful businessman originally from Elizabeth, New Jersey. He and his family settled in Keokuk in 1849, eight years before the house went up.

Harrison’s fingerprints are on a good deal of the town’s civic infrastructure. He helped establish the Keokuk Branch of the Iowa State Bank and served as its first president. He helped establish the waterworks in Keokuk and the Iowa State Insurance Company. He was involved with the local Unitarian Church, which stood next door, and he served four terms as First Ward Alderman.

He died in the house in 1877. The family sold it afterward, and around 1967 the building was converted into offices.

The Friendly Ghost and the Tenant Who Left

What is reported here is slight, and worth stating plainly as report rather than record. The building is said to be haunted by a friendly ghost. The same accounts note that it reportedly chased out one of the building’s tenants, which is a strange thing for a friendly ghost to do and the only detail that gives the story any edge.

No named witnesses, no dated incidents, and no documented investigation accompany the claim in the published record. Whether the presence is associated with Enos Harrison, who died on the property, is an assumption readers tend to make rather than anything the sources establish.

Seeing the Harrison House in Keokuk

This is not a museum. The house was converted to office use around 1967 and functions as a working commercial building, so there is no ghost tour and no scheduled interior access. Its National Register listing in 1984 protects the significance of the exterior, and that exterior, the bowed bay, the elliptical arch, and Iowa’s earliest mansard roof, is what a visitor can reasonably expect to see. View it from the street and leave the tenants alone.

Address: Keokuk, Iowa

See E. H. Harrison House for Yourself

Sources

• NPGallery Asset Detail (National Park Service)
• GeoHack – E. H. Harrison House
• Wikipedia: E. H. Harrison House

More Haunted Houses

The Villisca Axe Murder HouseVilla PaulaBlaine House AugustaExcelsior HouseBoleskine House Loch NessMontpelier Hill Hell Fire Club