Bruce Goldfish Fisheries

United States historic place

LocationEast of Thornburg off Iowa Highway 22

Coordinates41°27′18″N 92°18′58″W / 41.45500°N 92.31611°W / 41.45500; -92.31611

Area80 acres (32 ha)

Built1877 (fisheries)
1910 (house)


Bruce Goldfish Fisheries
U.S. National Register of Historic Places


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Location	East of Thornburg off Iowa Highway 22
Coordinates	41°27′18″N 92°18′58″W / 41.45500°N 92.31611°W / 41.45500; -92.31611
Area	80 acres (32 ha)
Built	1877 (fisheries) 1910 (house)
Built by	E.K. Bruce, Jr.
Architectural style	Queen Anne Neoclassical
NRHP reference No.	82002626^[1]
Added to NRHP	September 20, 1982

Bruce Goldfish Fisheries is located in rural Keokuk County, Iowa, United States east of the village of Thornburg. The fishery was founded in 1877 and ended operations in the 1940s. It became listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

It was established in 1877 by Elgin K. Bruce, who had started raising goldfish in Pittsburgh in 1845. His son, E.K. Bruce, Jr., took over the business in 1900 and he had the 1½-story, frame, Queen Anne-Neoclassical style house completed in 1910.

At one time, the Bruce Goldfish Fisheries consisted of twenty-four ponds, nine windmills, two fish houses, a storage house, barn, garage and two cement tanks sunk in the ground.^[2] The tanks were used to display the fish for public tours, and to sort them before they were shipped. The heyday of the business was in the 1920s, shipping goldfish across the United States and around the world.^[2]

Tariff protections were removed in 1933 and the American market was opened to less expensive Japanese fish. The effects of the Great Depression also led to the rapid decline of the business. E.K. Bruce, Jr. died in 1936 and the family tried to continue the operation, but it came to an end in the early 1940s. The Bruce family remained on the property until 1978. The house and some of the ponds remain on the property. The farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.^[1]

References

1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
1 2 Ralph J. Christian. "Bruce Goldfish Fisheries" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved January 14, 2016.

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v t e National Register of Historic Places in Keokuk County, Iowa
Harper	Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church Historic District
Keota	Ramsey Building C.F. and Mary Singmaster House
Sigourney	Keokuk County Courthouse Lancaster School Public Square Historic District Sigourney Public Library
South English	Theodore White House
Thornburg	Bruce Goldfish Fisheries
What Cheer	Masonic Opera House
See also: National Register of Historic Places listings in Keokuk County, Iowa and List of National Historic Landmarks in Iowa

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