History of the Church, Vol V, p525

[August, 1843] Wednesday, 2. – …A subscription has been got up to build a house for Elder Willard Richards, to which I subscribed a city lot.  The brethren subscribed $25 cash, 10 cords of stone, 30 bushels of lime, 105 days work, $59 in work, 15,900 bricks, glass, lumber and other materials, together with a quantity of produce.  I hope the day is not far distant when my clerk will have a comfortable house for his family.

William J. (1805-1895) and Christina C. Reimbold (1807-1896) originally owned about eight acres in the old Mormon flat area, and lived in what was once Willard Richards home when they first arrived sometime in the mid 19th century.  They emigrated from Germany and William eventually established himself as a “vine dresser” as recorded in the 1870 Nauvoo Census.  Four acres were dedicated as vineyards.  As he became more prosperous, the family expanded the home from 1865-1867, adding the breeze-way, an 18x28 wine cellar, and the entire west portion of the home.  The original portion of the home and foundation was the east portion.  While building, they temporarily lived immediately south. 

The Reimbold house’s design features a formal arrangement of parts employing a symmetrical composition.  The house has changed little from its appearance when it was first built by the Reimbolds.  The architecture combines earlier neoclassical forms similar to those used by the Mormons (such as formal composition, fanlights, Greek Revival frieze and entry detailing) with later decorative features that may have been influenced by the works of Alexander Davis and Andrew Jackson Downing (such as the central gables over the main entries, picturesque wood pendants at the end of the frieze at eave returns, a veranda with turned wood posts, and heavily molded interior woodwork).  Davis and Downing popularized the Gothic Revival and Italianate design characteristics in the era between 1840 and 1865.  These design features included the gable ended central bays in front and rear elevations, the cast iron gallery over the front stoop, the wood “eyebrows” with brick brackets over the window heads, and turned wood ornamentation such as the pendants used at the frieze level.
A few items of note on the architecture:

• The transecting gables over the central bays gave the house’s designer an opportunity to install fanlights in the attic area.  These fanlights appear to have been inspired by those used in the earlier Mormon Cultural hall located two blocks west. 

• The windows in the façade all have wood shutters, which were installed around 1970 to match those that were originally there.

• The transom over the front entry door was replaced.  The original had two oval ended lights (same as the rear entry).

• The raised concrete base of the porch was constructed in recent years (1970s?).  The original porch was built circa 1910, and replaced a small summer kitchen that was attached to the southeast corner of the house.

• The stoop at the entrance and the flat cantilevered roof with decorative cast iron appear to be original.

• The two plain brick interior chimneys served the living area on the west, and the kitchen and heating device on the east end of the second floor.

• The parlor area was once two rooms, and the fireplace has been built out from the original.

• The wine cellar entrance doors are not original.

• The front door of the original Willard Richards house was used as the entrance to the wine cellar. 

• Several interior doors from the old house were used as closed doors in the bedrooms of the new home.

• Jennetta Richards passed away while living in the home.  She was originally buried behind the house – where the wine cellar now is.  When her gravesite was discovered, her remains were moved to the southwest corner of the property, and then once again to the current location next to highway 96.