The American Gothic House was built in 1881-82 by Catherine and Charles Dibble and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Dibble House, also known as the American Gothic House. Constructed in the Carpenter Gothic style, it became famous as the backdrop of Grant Wood's painting American Gothic and draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. Its features include a steeply pitched roof, board and batten siding, and pointed-arch Gothic windows, with a front window and a matching mirror-image window at the back. It is believed, though not known for certain, that the windows were purchased through the Sears catalog, and one theory holds that the Dibbles chose churchlike windows to add beauty amid everyday struggles, while the windows also fit the mid-19th-century Carpenter Gothic style that combined quickly built homes with fanciful details made more affordable for modest wood-framed houses. In August 1930, when Mary Hart Jones and Gideon Jones owned the house, Mary Hart Jones saw Wood outside sketching the home, called her daughter to help clean it, and removed, washed, and stretched the lace curtains from the upstairs window, but Wood did not return because he had what he needed for the painting and instead created his own curtain for the image. The curtain in the window today was made to resemble as closely as possible the curtain Wood imagined. The house has not been moved; instead, the road in front was removed to build the trails and Center, making it seem to stand in a different place. Although moving it was discussed in the 1960s and early 1970s, no action was taken, and with its National Register listing in 1974, its transfer to the State Historical Society of Iowa in 1991, and the addition of the American Gothic House Center in 2007, it remains in its original location.