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The Dr. Bowen home

628 S. Twelfth Street

Two Fort Dodge physicians and surgeons who practiced together for 24 years also lived in the same South Twelfth Street neighborhood. They were Dr. W. W. Bowen, whose home at 628 S. 12th St. is pictured above, and Dr. Robert Evans who resided at 530 S. 12th St.

Both residences are of brick construction, fronting east on Twelfth Street, and were built about the same time in 1913. Dr. Bowen purchased his lot in 1912 and erected the house a year later.

The Bowen residence is now owned and occupied by another physician and his wife—Dr. and Mrs. Walter E. Gower—who acquired the property in 1946. The house has one unique feature—lightning rods on the roof.

The home has five rooms and a half bath on the first floor, four bedrooms and bath on the second floor and two finished rooms on the third floor. There is a butler’s pantry and a second pantry on the first floor, both with their original cupboards. In the butler’s pantry is a small heating element to keep dishes warm during the winter months.

Woodwork in the house has the original finish and has never been redone. The Gowers have been told that the excellent varnish finish is the same as used on the early-day Pullman railroad cars.

Dr. Bowen was born in Marion, Ill., in 1869 and as a youth of 15 moved with his parents to Kossuth County where the family settled near Algona. He attended the Algona public schools and later Northern Illinois Normal School in Dixon, Ill. In 1895 he graduated from the University of Iowa Medical college and began the practice of medicine at Whittemore. After five years he sold his practice and went to Berlin, Germany, for a year.

Returning to the United States in 1901 he came to Fort Dodge where he was a prominent physician and surgeon until 1940 when he retired. He and Dr. Evans practiced together for 24 years.

Dr. Bowen was active in medical societies and served as president of the Iowa Medical Society. He was a charter Fellow of the American College of Surgeons which was organized in 1913.

In 1895 Dr. Bowen was married to Miss May King and they were parents of a son, Harold, and a daughter, Lydia. Dr. Bowen died in Fort Dodge in 1944 at age 75.