Built in 1867 in the Italianate style at 401 West Broadway in Decorah, Iowa, the Ellsworth-Porter House began as the home of merchant Dighton B. Ellsworth, an English immigrant who arrived from New York in 1855. Sold to Francis and Emma Young in 1898, it later became the home of their daughter Grace Young Porter, her husband Adelbert Field "Bert" Porter, and Grace’s parents. In 1966, Bert Porter gave the house to the Winneshiek County Historical Society, and it opened as a museum in 1969. It preserves the family’s belongings, papers, furnishings, natural history specimens, and rock wall, reflecting the Porters’ lives, travels, and collecting interests.