ORANGE CITY, Iowa | Ken and Joanne Gamble toured a home across the street from the Sioux County Courthouse in August 2014. It took them scant minutes to make an offer, paying full price for a 100-year-old residence.
"It was an impulsive, passionate decision," Joanne Gamble said. "We loved the home! Who doesn't love all the rocks, the leaded glass windows, and the antiques that have been a part of that home for 100 years?"
It is likely the historic home in Orange City, a beloved residence often called "The Stone House" or "The Short Home" by locals who share their history with a home built in 1914 by Wells Short, president of Northwestern State Bank, and his wife, Johanna De Jong Short.
According to an owner history on display with a scrapbook detailing histories of all of the home's five owners, "The Shorts had their home designed after a home they saw while visiting California. The stones that make up the pillars, foundation and chimney were once in the Kern River in California where they first saw them. They were shipped by rail car to Alton, Iowa, and then loaded on wagons pulled by teams of horses, and transported to the building side."
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The home consists of 1,100 prism glass planes, solid oak colonades, a 1912 Steinway Parlor B Grand piano, a Waltham grandfather clock and an 11-piece African mahogany dining set, all of which are still displayed in a living space consisting of three bedrooms upstairs (one of which has a porch), two bedrooms on the main floor and one bedroom in the basement.
Ken Gamble marveled at the piano and the nine pianists who played in shifts, thrilling hundreds of visitors last November as the Gambles participated in Orange City's annual Tour of Homes. Ken and Joanne, he noted, are currently taking piano lessons as they aim to fully enjoy the Steinway that's a focal point in the living room. The crate that the piano was shipped in, he noted, can still be seen, in parts, at least, in the rafters of the garage out back.
Steve Cleveringa, of Orange City, was recently doing work in the home for the Gambles when he revealed the fact that the living room ceiling was once covered with hand-painted linen showing all sorts of flowing decorations and flowers. Cleveringa contacted the Gambles immediately and preserved as much of the linen as he could. There are rolls of it now in a basement den or man-room. Ken Gamble unrolled one of the pieces, smiling as each passing inch showed more intricate detail.
"This is incredible," he exclaimed.
That den, located just off a game-room in the basement, features two walls of stones with a corresponding key that details where on the globe each stone was found.
The Shorts were obviously influenced by the Arts & Crafts, or Craftsman, style of architecture in the design of this home, which features around 5,000 feet of living space on three floors. Architect brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, who worked together in Pasadena in the very early 1900s, likely have their figurative fingerprints covering this Arts & Crafts home.
"The furniture, the pottery, the architecture, some of the metal, and the rugs and tapestries all have an Arts and Crafts influence," Ken Gamble said.
"There was a period of time from about 1898 to the 1910s where the Arts and Crafts movement was huge," Joanne Gamble added. "The industrial movement made things en mass, and this was an attempt to get to a one-of-a-kind. Our living room has antique furniture that lasted. And the beautiful quartersawn oak and built-in bookcases and sets, that's all about making the house itself artistic."
The Shorts evidently went to Pasadena, the hub of the Arts & Crafts movement. Johanna Short discovered a home there, obtained the building plans and had their home constructed in Orange City. Joanne Gamble is on a quest to see if that home in Pasadena still stands.
The last step extending west from the front porch is higher than that of the other steps. The reason: That last step matched the bottom portion of a horse-drawn carriage, which headed south on the driveway, allowing residents and guests to depart from the home onto Second Street Southwest.
The Gambles came to Orange City as Ken Gamble founded Quatro Composites with Doug Roberts. The company expanded in Orange City before Ken Gamble sold the firm 12 years ago. A engineer, Ken has remained with the company, dividing his time between the Orange City plant and one in California. In mid-May, the Gambles will relocate to this home, for at least the next two to three years as Ken devotes much of his professional time to the plant in Orange City.
The Gambles do offer the home as a place for rent, choosing AirBNB.com as their mode. Recently, a group of performers from Nova Scotia rented the home while staying in town and doing some performances. The Orange City Arts Council will have musicians stay there, for example. A writer detailing the 2017 RAGBRAI experience will also stay here as the ride moves through the Sioux County seat.
Ken Gamble said two couples recently rented the home as both couples traveled to Orange City to be with their children as they celebrated the birth of a child. Ken Gamble paused as he described walking up to the back door and seeing four new grandparents holding a newborn baby. "I get choked up talking about it," he said.
Orange City families have gathered here and stayed here during graduation receptions, family reunions, weddings and funerals.
"If it helps Orange City in some way, that's great," Joanne Gamble said. "We fell the house really belongs to Orange City."
The home can be a focal point of sorts during the Orange City Tulip Festival as mobile food vendors who set up on the courthouse square park their carts in the home's garage. The singing bicyclists also use the Gamble's back yard to conduct their practice sessions, as Ken serves water and lemonade, a scene highlighted with the emergence of 800 tulips on the property.
