The historic Mary Darwin house in Burlington, Iowa is over 150 years old

Mary Darwin House, Burlington, Iowa.Photo byIan Poellet, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic Mary Darwin House is located at 537 Summer Street in Burlington, Iowa (Des Moines County). On January 24, 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

This was the home of Mary Abigail Platt Darwin from 1866 to 1886. Mary was influential in the Women's suffrage movement in the late 1800s at the local and state levels in Iowa.

From 1851 to 1870, Mary lived with her husband, Charles Ben Darwin (a native of England), until he moved to the state of Washington. They ended up divorcing and when Charles left, their three children remained with Mary.

The house and Mary Darwin

The two-story vernacular Italianate-style home was constructed in 1866. The foundation is rockfaced limestone and the walls were a dark red brick.

The Mary Darwin House (2021).Photo byHeritage Trust via Facebook.

There is a one-and-a-half-story kitchen wing in the rear. There's a wooden veranda in the front and another one on the south side of the wing.

When the house was nominated for the National Register, it was in good condition. It's believed the porches are newer than the house.

Mary and her husband came to Burlington in 1851. Charles left for Washington state in 1866. According to city directories, starting in 1870, Mary was listed as a "professor of logic, rhetoric and English literature." She taught these subjects out of a school operated in her home.

By the mid-1860s, Mary became known as an able speaker (one who is a fluent speaker) regarding women's rights and the women's suffrage subject. In the fall of 1863, she delivered a speech at the Ladies' Sanitary Convention in Des Moines, Iowa. She was speaking on behalf of Annie Wittenmeyer (1827-1900), a relief worker and reformer.

Wittenmeyer performed work for the Sanitary Commission, an entity founded during the Civil War that gave food, medicine, and clothing to soldiers. At the time of Mary's speech, the Sanitary Commission was controversial. Her speech got noticed.

By 1870, Mary Darwin was a strong force at the state level. She chaired the first meeting of the executive committee of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. She also organized the Burlington Woman's Suffrage Society of which she served as president.

While Mary became a popular and outspoken speaker, she had attitudes about free love that weren't well-received by other suffragists. Free love was a social movement that did away with the concept of traditional marriage and implied that you could love whoever you wanted.

Because of Mary's views on free love, after her years of leadership, she was shut out of the suffragist movement. She left for Washington D.C. for four years. When she returned to Burlington, she became involved with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). She was a firm believer in letting others know that the only way to achieve reform was to have the ability to vote.

Mary Darwin was born in Connecticut on November 12, 1821. She died in Burlington on July 30, 1886, at age 64. Her meaningful obituary was published in the Burlington Hawkeye on the day after her death. She died at home and was discovered by her son, Will Darwin.

According to Zillow, the house was last sold in 2017.

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