[Illustration: 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.