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The E.H. Rich home

819 3rd Avenue South

E. H. Rich, a prominent Fort Dodge banker, built this large brick home at 819 3rd Ave. S. in 1880 and it was occupied continuously by members of the Rich family until the recent death of Miss Eva Rich.

Rich came to the city in 1874 and was cashier of the early-day First National Bank for many years—a bank that later was reorganized as the State Bank.

The Rich house is located on a three-lot site at the southwest corner of Third Avenue South and Ninth Street. Foundation of the home is constructed of large hand-hewn limestone blocks 20 inches thick and upper walls are 14 inches thick. The soft burned red brick used on the exterior was produced at a local brickyard using wood logs at that time to fire the kilns.

The house contains seven bedrooms, living room, dining room, music room, kitchen and two bathrooms. The third floor attic area has three large rooms and there is a fourth floor with two unfinished rooms now reached only by a ladder. The interior stairway, doors and trim of the home are of solid walnut, cut out and formed from local walnut trees.

Originally the house had seven open fireplaces, four on the first floor and three in upstairs bedrooms. With the coming of gas heat these were sealed off and six of the eight chimneys on the house removed. The house is now heated by two hot air gas-fired furnaces.

The home was piped for gas lighting long before there was any city gas in Fort Dodge. A large tank filled with naphtha was buried in the backyard and the naphtha was piped to a gas machine in the basement. The naphtha dripped over a large enclosed rotating drum which generated illuminating gas by evaporation. A pump then forced the gas into distributing pipes. Power for this home gas system was supplied by clockwork gears run by gravity from 2,000 pound millstones. Each evening it was necessary to wind up the machine before lighting the gas fixtures.

There were no telephones in the town when the house was built so Rich installed a telegraph line from the home to the bank a few blocks distant. Mr. and Mrs. Rich learned the telegraph code and one day when Mrs. Rich was injured she telegraphed her husband “Come quick—badly hurt.” Mr. Rich ran the distance from the bank to his home and found his injured wife. It was believed the telegraph message saved her life.

In later years the Rich home was completely modernized. In 1973 the house was sold by Willis Rich, last of the family of seven, to Bill and Bruce Algood who are reconditioning and furnishing it in the tradition of the era when it was built. A large floor based mirror from the home was given by Rich to the governor’s mansion—“Terrace Hill”—in Des Moines.