John Melbourne Rich House I in 2004

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John Melbourne Rich House I in 2004

The house was built by John "Talking John" Melbourne Rich, the first of his three houses. John owed his Uncle Jonathan Rich (1836-1907) a sum of money, so he swapped this Tremont house for Jonathan's older less valuable Richtown house. Emily (Rich) Trask (1884-1981), John Melbourne Rich's daughter, said in a 1975 interview that she was born in the house, "in that back bedroom up there… That was a big place. It was different from these days…it had a piazza clean around it and round the front. Father was great on building big places but he got in debt so much that he had to give up and go over to Richville [Richtown] and live."

The main house, minus barn and ell, still exists in 2016, although covered in green asbestos shingles. The house was originally painted a cream color with brown trim. It sits back from the road just before the Tremont Congregational Church.

After Jonathan Rich's death in 1907 his widow, Roseanna B. (Dix) Rich sold the house to Joseph E. Wooster. Roseanna built a house on the water opposite. A later owner, Alvah Dalton Rich, Sr.'s widow, Evelyn Frances (Pomroy) Rich's second husband, Charles Edwin Hamblen, tore off the barn and ell during the depression to save money on taxes. The house had no electricity until 1942.

5 Hamblen Lane

Tremont, Bernard

ME

USA

2004