A: Among its residents were a U.S. senator, an inspector for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, Iowa’s state printer, the director of the U.S. Mint, the president of U.S. Gypsum Company, the publisher of the local newspaper, and most of the city’s early bankers and entrepreneurs. 

A: These homes represented the prosperity and optimism which dominated in Fort Dodge during its golden era. Each family sought to outshine their neighbors in size, quality, and elegance of their home, reflecting on the local level the “conspicuous consumption” ethic of America’s “Gilded Age.”  

A: The district, which was originally the southeastern edge of the city, included the homes of the community’s business leaders and leading citizens.