Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
RIDGEMOUNT
RIDGEMOUNT. Home of James LANGWORTHY. Built in 1849 of brick from the Langworthy brickyard, the home was often considered the finest in the Upper Mississippi Valley and was a gathering place for society's elite. Located at the corner of Peabody and James (later James and Langworthy STREETS), the $40,000 red-brick, two-story Colonial Revival home had thirty-nine rooms with a "captain's watch" facing the river. (1) Furnishings purchased in New York were shipped through the Gulf of Mexico and then up the MISSISSIPPI RIVER to Dubuque. When Aleen Langworthy Massey, James' daughter, lived there (until 1919) it was often called the "Massey House."
After the death in 1930 of a second daughter, Mary Augusta Langworthy, the home fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1945 for the construction of a parking lot for MERCY HEALTH CENTER.
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Source:
1. Gibson, Michael D. "Dubuque's First Family: The Langworthys," Julien's Journal, July 2013, p. 46
Sommer, Lawrence J. The Heritage of Dubuque: An Architectural View. 1975
