Mansion of the William H. Dent family . . .

Looking Back at the History...News articles describing History detail

The Original Owner/Builder was William H. Dent for his family.

LeMars Daily Sentinel
July 18, 1963
Page 1

REMSEN COLUMNIST RECALLS MEMORIES OF WILLIAM DENT
(The Yours Truly columnist, E. F. Kieffer, in this week’s issue of the Remsen Bell-Enterprise has a nostalgic note about William H. Dent, builder of the Carolina Terrace here.  Mr. Kieffer has drawn details from his excellent memory to describe the pioneer LeMars resident.)

My gaze was arrested, and held fast, on a feature story in the LeMars Sentinel, issue of July 11, about a structural landmark that is being relegated to the past to make way for an oil station.

Yes, we of the old school remember the builder of Carolina Terrace, the old English style residence on the corner of Plymouth street and Second avenue – often have I pointed it out to fellow passengers on our way through LeMars.

I still see in memory’s eye the stately figure of William H. Dent, the builder, who imported a craftsman from England to supervise the building of the manor back in 1892.  Mr. Dent was a banker; he and his family lived in the mansion; he was a man of means and clung to many of his transplanted English manners and customs.  In referring him to a “familiar figure,” I see him walking the streets of LeMars, whitish hair and trim moustache of similar hue and (in the summer time) wearing immaculate white trousers and white shirt, a “proper” bow tie and a black sash – a compelling but highly respected figure.

With the razing of Carolina Terrace, the figure of William H. Dent recedes farther into the past.

And to think that his residential masterpiece is to be replaced by an oil station!

LeMars Daily Sentinel, July 11, 1963

. . . Built by LeMars banker, W. H. Dent in 1892, the 21-room house was the scene of many social gatherings and dances during the period of occupancy by the Dent family and later by Mr. and Mrs. A. Reichman and their nine children.

. . . Original owner of the house, W. H. Dent who was president of the LeMars bank established here in 1872.  The business has since become the First National bank.

W. H. Dent was born in 1843 in Illinois and moved west in 1875.  The Dents had two daughters, the late Mrs. Alex (Edith) Reichman, Chicago, and the late Mrs. Harriet Scott, who moved to Canada.  Both girls received their educations in England.

Mr. Dent selected a style of architecture which was called at that time “modern” English colonial.  These two storied houses were typified by two imposing entrances, brick chimneys, pillared porches and living rooms high above the ground to catch the breeze.

Main entrance to the Carolina Terrace was on the Central Ave. side, with large double doors, and a long porch around the south and east. A front extension of the house and porch jutted out to the southeast, facing the business district.

The imposing structure featured tall gables, reminiscent of the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Mass., made famous by Hawthorne.  Windows in the gables and dormers have leaded glass.

The top stories were sided with rived shingles designed to catch a pattern of shadows in the sunlight, one of the favorite decorations of master builders.  The ground floor is clapboards.  Vertical matched boards with curved designs and ribbing added interest to the mansion.

Planned to resemble an English town house, servants’ wing was at the back with a sunken garden surrounded by a lilac hedge.

A. Reichman bought the house after his family of nine was nearly grown. The young people entertained their friends at many social events in the rambling rooms and halls.

Born in 1840 in Germany, Mr. Reichman came to this country as a child with his parents to Buffalo, N.Y.  He became a dealer here in 1877 of dry goods, notions, ready made clothing, gents’ furnished goods, hats, caps, groceries, crockery, glassware, etc., according to an 1882 History of Western Iowa. 

Miss Carrie Reichman, now of Sioux City, lived in the house alone for many years after other family members moved away and her parents died.  She sold the house to Mrs. MacCormack. 

Other members of the well known Reichman family were: Mrs. R. J. (Minnie) Koehler of LeMars, who died recently in Sioux City; Alex Reichman of Chicago; Mrs. Rose Hoffman, of Sioux Falls; Eugene who was killed when he was thrown from a horse in Dakota; and Ernestine (Tena) of North Dakota.  These five children are dead.

In addition to Carrie, there are Mrs. Theresa Wilson in Glendale, Calif., Monty of Lead, S.D., and Mrs. Hermina Raven in Sioux City.

The house in which they lived has stood throughout years as a silent testimonial to another way of life.  Then, as now, progress moves on.  Despite the death of an historic LeMars landmark this summer [1963], several million dollars of new building construction here has captured the interest of most residents as the clapboards and timbers come down of the Carolina Terrace. 

. . . A "glimpse" of the stately Dent/Reichmann mansion -- photo taken from across the street on the Baptist church corner . . . approx. 1940.

. . . The "history" detail continues as follows: New owner, Mrs. Annie McCormack takes on the ownership in approx 1943.

LeMars Daily Sentinel, October 23, 1963

. . . With Mr. Reichert’s death in 1934, the Union Hotel business was sold a year later to a Cherokee hotel man, Mr. Burke, and Joe McCormack.  Mr. McCormack managed the Union hotel and later turned it over to his mother, Mrs. Annie McCormack.  She sold the Union hotel business to Dr. Brauch 18 years ago and she opened the Carolina Terrace apartment hotel, the first link in the fates of the two business places which ended this year [1963].

Dr. Brauch had purchased the Union Hotel building in 1942.

. . . The Dent mansion -- new ownership -- "Carolina Terrace"