Steve Gorman
September 10, 2026
7:49 am
History

Today’s Alameda Treasure – 1620 Fourth Street, A Return to ‘Down Home,’ Part 1

1620 Fourth Street is one of the oldest houses in Alameda, and the oldest on the West End. In February 2025, I began a five-part series on this important pioneer house, starting with its first owner, Abram Rich in 1866, and continuing all the way to current owners Steve and Suzie Campbell, who have owned the house since 1999.

Generations of the Rich family called this once-rural property “Down Home,” a name we still honor to this day.

Alameda Post - The home at 1620 Fourth Street, a small cottage with a large front garden with roses. — 1620 Fourth Street, the once-rural farming property known as “Down Home,” appears here in its current-day form. This is the oldest home on the West End, dating back to 1866. 2024 photo by Steve Gorman.

Descendants found

New information has come to light since then and I’ve been in contact with two descendants of the Rich family, who have shared new stories and provided rare and illuminating photos and documents that have never before been published. In the next couple of articles, I’ll share these historical artifacts and fill out the story of this remarkable Alameda Treasure.

Alameda Post - A black and white family photo on a front porch. — This rare photo of the Rich family on the porch of 1620 Fourth Street may have been taken in the early 1890s, and shows the porch with its original thinner columns and more open walls. At left is Augustus (Gus) Derby, who married Lucy Rich (to his left) in 1894. Margaret Rich is sitting below Lucy, and father Abram Rich is seated on the porch. Other Rich family members, friends and relatives fill out the scene. Photo from the collection of Kate Sheppard.

The Rich House

Abraham Rich, the fifth of eight siblings, came to California from Bath, Maine, in 1861, when he was 29 years old. On June 4, 1864 he married Catherine Tubbs, a native of County Cork, Ireland, at the county courthouse in San Jose, California. Voter registration lists show Abram, as he was known, in San Francisco as of 1866; in that same year he purchased land on the West End of Alameda from William W. Chipman, one of Alameda’s founders. There, he built a small house in a style that has been described variously over the years as Pioneer, Pre-Gothic, and Gothic-Revival. This house still stands today at 1620 Fourth Street, formerly known as West End Avenue.

Alameda Post - An early black and white photo of 1620 Fourth Street. — A vintage photo of 1620 Fourth Street shows thicker porch columns and solid porch walls, as opposed to the thinner columns and open porch walls in earlier photos (see elsewhere in this article). This suggests that this photo was taken in the early 1900s, when Craftsman style updates were made to the interior and exterior of the house. Photo from the collection of Kate Sheppard.

The X chromosome

Abram Rich must have been rich in X chromosomes, because the Riches had five daughters; Rebecca (1865), Margaret (1867), Mary Helen (1867), Lucy (1869), and Katie (1871). Sadly, Catharine H. Rich (Katie), the youngest daughter of the Riches, only lived to 7 months and 27 days old; she died on June 27, 1872. All four of the other Rich sisters lived full lives, though, living to an average age of 77.5.

Alameda Post - A formal portrait of two parents and fourth adult daughters standing and sitting on a bench in an outdoor space. They all wear dark colors. — In this picture of the Rich family, likely taken in the 1880s on their property, Mary Helen appears at left, followed by father Abram, mother Catherine, sisters Rebecca, Lucy (standing) and Margaret (standing). Photo from the collection of Kate Sheppard.

One daughter carries on the DNA

Out of all these Rich family daughters, only one had children. That daughter, Mary Helen Rich (1867-1948), is responsible for the entire Rich / Goggin family tree that continues to this day. It has been my good fortune to have contacted two of these descendants of the Riches; one a great-great granddaughter living in Washington State, and the other a great-great grandson living in Idaho. One contacted me after reading my articles in the Alameda Post, and the other I found via the free genealogy site familysearch.org. These descendants are in the Goggin family line, since Goggin is the name Mary Helen Rich took when she married.

Alameda Post - An old black and white photo of three women enjoying a handsome living room, and one small baby laying in a rocking cradle. — The front parlor of 1620 Fourth Street is seen in this undated photo. According to Kate Sheppard, this photo depicts, from left, Rebecca, Margaret, and Mary Helen with her baby daughter Kathryn (Kate’s grandmother, who was born in 1898). The substantial brick fireplace and mantel may be part of a later Craftsman style remodel. Photo from the collection of Kate Sheppard.

Alameda Post - A family photo of an older couple and their adult daughter. They wear colorful lower leis. — Mary Helen Rich Goggin (left) is shown with her husband Gerald E. Goggin and daughter Katherine L. Goggin (grandmother of Kate Sheppard). Colorized photo taken circa 1920 on a cruise to Hawaii. Photo from the collection of Kate Sheppard.

Mary Helen marries Gerald

While the two eldest sisters, Rebecca and Margaret, never married, the younger sisters Mary Helen and Lucy did marry. As mentioned, only Mary Helen had children. If not for her, I would not have been able to contact these Rich family descendants, because they would not exist!

Mary Helen Rich (1867-1948) married Gerald Edmund Goggin (1868-1946) on November 18, 1897, in Alameda. They had three children: Kathryn L. Goggin in 1898, Gerald W. Goggin in 1900, and Helen Margaret Goggin in 1905. Gerald W. Goggin would end up playing a big role at 1620 Fourth Street when he moved into his family’s ancestral home around the time of the deaths of his aunts Rebecca and Margaret. And it is through him, and his sister Kathryn, that I have come to know the descendants of this family, now living in the states of Washington and Idaho.

Alameda Post - A rich, old fashioned cottage living room with lots of dark wood and natural light. — A current-day view of the dining room at 1620 Fourth Street, along with the original kitchen seen behind. Current owners Steve and Suzie Campbell have devoted themselves to respecting the historic legacy of their “Down Home” property. Photo by Steve Gorman.

Alameda Post - A photo of a fireplace and the front of a manuscript titled "The William Goggin Family Story." — **Left**: A current-day photo of the front parlor shows the fireplace restored back to something probably resembling its original, more modest form. Photo by Steve Campbell. **Right**: An example of just one of the fascinating multi-page documents I received this year from Patrick Goggin, great-great grandson of Abram and Catherine Rich. These documents were prepared by another Goggin family member, Julie Goggin Barneson, and explore in depth the Goggin family history and how it connected with the Rich family when Gerald E. Goggin married Helen Rich in 1897 and carried the family line on to the present day. From the collection of Patrick Goggin.

A treasure trove

Through these two descendants, I have come into possession of more information on the Rich / Goggin family and 1620 Fourth Street than I ever had before. This treasure trove includes rare and never-before-seen pictures of the Rich family, both inside and outside of their historic home, an image of the original bill of sale for Nellie the cow (featured in Part 2 of my original series on Down Home), the original 1866 deed transferring the land from William W. Chipman to Abram Rich and listing the cost, extensive family history documents tracing the history of the Goggin family back to Ireland in the 1700s, a connection to Australia, and the wily ways of ancestor Edmond William Goggin (1832-?), who got in trouble in Australia by swindling lenders, bankrupting his family, and later, absconding to either Fiji or Tahiti, never to be seen again, despite the efforts of his son Gerald Edmund Goggin to track him down.

We’ll also see how confusion can enter a family tree when two first cousins marry, how a sibling getting pushed out of a window leads to estrangement in the family, and how Italian heritage enters the family in the early 1930s. All of this and more, when our Return to Down Home continues.

Special thanks to Kate Sheppard and Patrick Goggin for their invaluable contributions in sharing the story of one of Alameda’s pioneer families.

Contributing writer Steve Gorman has been a resident of Alameda since 2000, when he fell in love with the history and architecture of this unique town. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Steve-Gorman.