This buff brick home at 775 Crest Avenue was built in 1919 by the late L. E. Armstrong, business and industrial leader of Fort Dodge. It was purchased in 1941 by K. S. Fantle and in 1954 by its present occupant, C. M. Bodensteiner, president of Fort Dodge By-Products.

The house is 100 feet long, with a red tile roof. There is an old-fashioned “tea house” on the property and a two-story garage with living quarters on the second floor.

The home’s first floor has living room, dining room, kitchen, butler’s pantry, den, four bedrooms and two full and two half baths.

The second floor living quarters have living room, dining room, two bedrooms, two baths, kitchen and den.

The third floor has two bedrooms and bath and a children’s ballroom.

The house has oak ceiling beams in downstairs rooms and the living room has oak paneled walls. At the top of the living room walls is a decorative border of cut velvet originally put in when the house was built. An oak stairway leads to the second floor and the staircase and upper floor areas have imported tooled leather wallpaper that was hung by workmen from Italy. The original grand stairway had a lounge area halfway between the first and second floors. Furnishings included a grand piano.

Armstrong began business in Fort Dodge in 1886, establishing the Plymouth Clothing Store at Central Avenue and Sixth Street. He promoted the store in a unique way, purchasing what was reported to be the first auto delivered in Iowa in 1899, a Winton costing $1,000. Hitching a pony cart to the auto he gave customers and friends a ride from his store around the City Square and back again.

After purchasing clay and gypsum land in the area, Armstrong established the Plymouth Gypsum Company in 1903 and the Plymouth Clay Products Company in 1910. Ten years later he established the Iowana Gypsum Company. Both were sold in 1922 to the Universal Gypsum Company, predecessor of the National Gypsum Company now operating here. Armstrong also organized the Plymouth Processing Mill for soybeans.

Armstrong was president of the Fort Dodge National Bank (now the First National) from 1924 to 1936. He was interested in promoting Fort Dodge and the area and organized the Hawkeye Fair & Exposition in 1919 and was its president. He served as president of the Fort Dodge Chamber of Commerce from 1916-1919.