Porter Hall

Centerville, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Heritage registerNational Register of Historic Places↗

Porter Hall is a historic 2½-story frame residence in Centerville, Iowa, built in or remodeled during the 1910s and 1920s under the ownership of Dr. Charles James. The house exemplifies the Picturesque Tudor Revival style through its distinctive half-timbering and stucco detailing, though it may incorporate an earlier 1880s structure extensively transformed over time. The property takes its name from Claude R. Porter, a Democratic politician who owned it from 1906 to 1909 and went on to serve in the Iowa House and Senate, as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, and on the Interstate Commerce Commission, while mounting unsuccessful campaigns for state governor and U.S. Senate. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, the house stands as a notable example of early twentieth-century residential architecture in Iowa.