Shortly after F. J. Brule’s 1906 survey, Walkerville carpenter Ed Reimel built this one-and-one-half-story, brick-veneered home with extended eaves and a hipped roof dormer with flared ends. Victorian elements include beveled glass windows in the gable end, segmented arch accents over the windows, and a hairpin fence providing symbolic protection from the outside world. Cornish immigrants John and Mary Rich were the first owners. John worked as a bookkeeper. He was also bandmaster for the Alice Mine and Mill Band and secretary of the Musicians Mutual Protective Union. In 1917, as a musician at the Rialto Theater, he doubtless played the sound tracks for silent movies. Mary was in women’s groups including the Miriam Rebekah Lodge #3 and the Walkerville Circle #547, Neighbors of Woodcraft. In 1924 the Riches moved down the street to a smaller home. From 1925 to the 1940s, this was home to William Richards, co-lessee of the Goldsmith Mine, and his wife Bessie and their four children. Their daughter Lavina lived here until 1990.
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