Rolfe, Iowa, Comes to Its Census : Cash, Land Offers Lure New Faces to Shrinking Town

Penny Hollis left New Hampshire last summer and bought a home in this farm belt town so fast that she didn’t notice the major landmark: a grain elevator.

“I thought, ‘Elevator, what’s so special about an elevator? Isn’t that what goes up and down in department stores?’ ” she recalled.

Hoping to save its businesses and its school, Rolfe put out a national invitation two years ago, offering a free lot and $1,200 cash to anyone who builds a house worth $30,000.

About 70 people have accepted the invitation, increasing the population by almost 10%. Their 20 children padded school enrollment to 190.

Four houses have been built, although none by the transplants, who are happy to rent or buy existing homes at a fraction of the price they’re used to paying.

“We paid $4,500 for it, plus $1,500 for the garage,” says Becky Roberts of her century-old, 3,000-square-foot house. “In Sacramento, it would probably go for $300,000.”

To Roberts and her husband, Gary, who moved from the California capital this year for their retirement, this town about 80 miles northwest of Des Moines is just what they were looking for.

“It’s real slow here,” she said. “People are genuinely friendly. If they call on you or visit, it’s because they want to. . . . You don’t have to be suspicious of people at your door.

“You go downtown and find cars parked at the curb, running, with babies in them. In California, you would never leave it unlocked, let alone running with a kid in it. That would be like stamping the kid on the forehead with, ‘Take me, I’m available.’ ”

After her husband died two years ago, Hollis, 31, decided she and her four children, ages 3 to 14, needed to get away from New Hampshire.

“I saw this article in a woman’s magazine and decided to drive out,” she said. “I couldn’t get over the openness. I kept stopping the car and getting out so I could see how far I could see.”

She said relatives practically dared her to leave New England, betting that she wouldn’t. She admitted she has had regrets.

“I used to socialize all the time, and now I don’t know anybody,” she said.