It’s a special treat to travel to the West End of Alameda and explore one of the very oldest still-standing homes in town. Although records from this period can be imprecise, the best information we have is that the home at 1620 Fourth Street was built between 1865 and 1866, after Abram Rich purchased land directly from Alameda co-founder William W. Chipman. This makes it the oldest house on the West End, and one of the very oldest in town. The style can be described as Pioneer Gothic Revival Cottage.
A West End farm
We learned in Part 1 of this story that when Maine native Abram Rich and his Irish-born wife, Catherine Tubbs Rich, first moved in, they farmed a plot of land that was much bigger than the property that remains today. They grew produce for the Alameda and San Francisco markets and had at least one Holstein cow, named Nellie. Their peaceful homestead on the sparsely populated West End was known for generations simply as “Down Home.”
Lumber sparks romance
After a time, Abram took a position as yard manager for E. M. Derby, Alameda’s lumber baron. Abram would thrive in this business for decades, moving up in responsibility as the years went on. The close connection between the Rich and Derby families was made stronger by the marriage of Abram Rich’s youngest daughter, Lucy, to E. M. Derby’s son Augustus in 1894.
Prior to that, sisters Lucy Rich and Mary Rich were employed at the Oakland office of the E. M. Derby Company, likely the place where romance first sparked between Lucy and Augustus. This marriage may have never taken place had Abram Rich not switched careers from farming to lumber. It’s a good example of how each decision we make in life leads to a series of consequences down the line that we cannot possibly predict at the moment.
Galled by death
On Monday, November 18, 1901, an article appeared in the Alameda Times Star headlined “Pioneer Galled by Death,” reporting the passing of Catherine Rich the day before. The deeply religious woman, who had emigrated from Ireland early in life, had come to California in 1861. She then lived for over 36 years in Alameda, in the same “Down Home” cottage that still stands today on Fourth Street near Pacific Avenue.
During her 68 years, Catherine raised five daughters, saw one die at just seven months of age, and experienced the growth of Alameda from a group of scattered settlements of less than 1,000 people into an incorporated city of over 16,000 souls. The article closed by saying, “Mrs. Rich was a woman of charitable instincts and kindly disposition. During her long residence here she enjoyed a wide circle of friends who will sincerely mourn her loss.”
Death on a train
Even prior to the passing of his wife Catherine in 1901, there was a foreshadowing of health problems for Abram Rich as well. A March 2, 1900 notice in the Personal column of the Alameda Daily Argus stated, “Abram Rich of 1620 Fourth Street is spending a few weeks near San Jose for the benefit of his health.”
His health held out for the next seven years, before an Alameda Times Star article on August 12, 1907, headlined “Sudden Death of Abram Rich,” described the passing of the Alameda pioneer while riding a Placer County train on his way home from a daughter’s house. The article went on to say that Rich had been a resident of Alameda for 45 years and was for many years the manager of the Alameda branch of the E. M. Derby Lumber Company, from which he had retired a few years earlier due to ill health.
The 75-year-old Rich had gone to Placer County 10 days before his passing to see if the change of locale would improve his steadily failing health—but it was not to be. His daughter was with him at the time of his collapse on the train, but the article does not specify which daughter. All who knew him attested to his upright character and prominent place in the community and in the Catholic church.
The Margaret and Rebecca years
With Catherine and Abram Rich now laid to rest in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Oakland, and sisters Lucy and Mary married and living with their own families, Margaret and Rebecca were left to carry on alone at 1620 Fourth Street. Margaret was 41 years old in 1907, and eldest sister Rebecca was 42. Neither sister would ever marry, and both would spend the rest of their lives at the old family homestead on West End Avenue, later to be re-named Fourth Street.
In approximately 1913, the sisters sold off some of the land, which was no longer needed for farming. The lot that remains today is still quite deep, though not nearly as much as it was before, nor is it nearly as wide as before. Financial considerations likely necessitated the downsizing of the property at that time.
Margaret and Rebecca were, like their parents, devout Catholics. They devoted their lives to the church, and when the old St. Joseph’s church burned down in 1919, they set up a borrowed circus tent in the backyard of 1620 Fourth Street, built a temporary altar, and held Sunday services there until the new St. Joseph’s Basilica was built.
Current owner Steve Campbell remembers a fascinating incident that occurred a few years after he and his wife Susan took possession of the historic property. The year was approximately 2002, and as Steve and Susan worked in the front yard, an antique Packard sedan slowly pulled up, with an older couple inside dressed in vintage clothing. The brother and sister had made this trip just to see the old house where they remembered attending church services many years before, when they were young children. The memories of those backyard services under a tent were so fond that they made the visit in period costume just to relive that special time in their lives. Today, the Campbells feel a responsibility to respect the long history of this home, and all the lives that have been lived in it.
Rebecca goes to work
It was considered unusual for a woman to be employed in a non-family business in 1912, when Rebecca Rich joined the H. C. Capwell department store in Oakland. She soon worked her way up to head bookkeeper and held that position until 1929, when she joined Capwell, Sullivan, and Furth to become head accountant—a position she held until 1936 when health problems forced her resignation. According to a Brookings.edu article, “In the early 20th century, most women in the United States did not work outside the home, and those who did were primarily young and unmarried. In that era, just 20% of all women were ‘gainful workers,’ as the Census Bureau then categorized labor force participation outside the home and only 5% of those married were categorized as such.”
Rebecca Rich stands out as an early 20th century working woman who went against the norms of the times by never marrying and achieving a successful 24-year career in business. The Capwell department store was one the largest and most popular stores in Oakland, and its success was at least partly due to the efforts of Alameda’s own Rebecca Rich.
The next generation
While Rebecca Rich spent her career at Capwell, Sullivan, and Furth, her younger sister Margaret devoted her life to the church and maintaining the old home on Fourth Street. A newspaper article once referred to the shy and retiring Margaret as “Rebecca’s housekeeper,” but it may have been simply that Margaret did her part to keep house while her older sister worked and brought in money.
On May 6, 1935, the Alameda Times Star reported, “Margaret Rich, a native of Alameda and a member of one of this city’s early pioneer families, died yesterday in her home at 1620 Fourth Street.” She was the first of the Rich sisters to pass since their baby sister Catherine H. Rich had died in 1872 at just seven months old. Margaret Rich was 68 years old.
Just four years later, on May 1, 1939, Rebecca Rich, the eldest sister, passed away at age 75. An obituary in the Alameda Times Star stated that Rebecca, “…retired head accountant for Capwell, Sullivan, and Furth, and widely known in Alameda for her work in the Catholic Church, died yesterday in her home at 2065 Clinton Avenue, after an extended illness.” Since the sisters Margaret and Rebecca were said to have lived their whole lives Down Home at 1620 Fourth Street, it’s interesting that a Clinton Avenue address was her final residence. The home at 2065 Clinton Avenue is directly across the street from Alameda Hospital, so it could be that she had resided at this location for only a relatively short time, related to her failing health.
What’s next for Down Home?
With the old house at 1620 Fourth Street sitting empty in 1939, who would step up to keep the family history alive at this once-rural location? Tune in next time to find out how the Rich family history continues for the next 60 years.
Special thanks to Steve and Susan Campbell for preserving this rare piece of Alameda’s history, and sharing it with Alameda Post readers. Thanks also to Myrna van Lunteren, Alameda Museum, for historic images of the Rich family.
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.
