Former Oregonians embraces a new life in a historic Iowa house
Kendra Lint was scrolling through her Instagram feed when she fell in love, long-distance. The object of her sudden desire? The historic James A. Beck House, a stately Queen Anne-style home in Fairfield, Iowa. Complete with a turret, wraparound porch, stained glass windows, third-floor ballroom and carriage house, it was now listed below $300,000.
‘I want to move there,’ Kendra thought to herself. Never mind the fact that the home was located nearly 2,000 miles away from where she and her family lived in Portland, Oregon.
“It was on sale online, and everything I buy is on sale from the internet,” she laughed.
Kendra showed her husband, Richard, photos of the house. Intrigued, they began considering the move for both their personal lives and their business. The Lints own This Old Game, a business that specializes in restoring and reproducing artwork for vintage arcade machines. So, they had the flexibility and skills to explore a restoration and decided to take a closer look. The couple road-tripped to Southeast Iowa to tour the home and check out the community and school system for their daughter.
“It was even better in-person,” Kendra said, completely smitten with the home’s original woodwork.
Designed by popular catalog architect George Franklin Barber, the Beck House was built in 1896 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
“The house itself was cool and working on an old house seemed like an interesting challenge,” Richard said. “That, coupled with making [Kendra] happy, is what sold me.”
RELATED: Find historic preservation assistance and grants through the State Historic Preservation Office.
The couple officially decided to take the leap. On the second day of their visit, they put in an offer, making Kendra’s Victorian house dreams come true.
“I drove by a Barber design for 17 years,” Kendra said, referring to Portland’s iconic Poulsen House. “Every time, I would say ‘I’m going to get a house just like that someday.’”
Thanks to the affordability of the Iowa property, that day had finally arrived. The Lint family closed on their dream house in July of 2020. Its location at the corner of Burlington Avenue and D Street is just a few walkable blocks from their daughter’s high school and Fairfield’s historic downtown.
Living in a Local Landmark
It wasn’t long before community members took note of the historic home’s new owners. Kendra and Richard’s Fairfield neighbors were eager to introduce themselves and share connections to the Beck House. Others dropped off some baked goods with well-wishes. Even the mayor stopped by with homemade muffins.
“You have to love a small town because that’s just amazing,” Kendra said.
Another surprise: Running into one of their video game business connections, the legendary Walter Day, at the grocery store. Day is recognized as the electronic gaming industry’s premiere statistician. They knew he lived in Iowa but hadn’t realized they had moved to his hometown.
After settling in, Kendra and Richard created a James A. Beck House Facebook page to introduce themselves to the town and chronicle what they discovered about the home and its past. The home already had a new boiler, roof and other major repairs. So, once they took care of the flooded basement and had the faucets running again, they could take their time to make period-appropriate aesthetic fixes.
“The one thing we didn’t do was jump right in and start tearing stuff up or changing things,” Richard said. “We got settled in first and did a lot of research on the house. Most of what made this house what it was had been forgotten.”
The Lints started to receive invitations to speak to clubs and organizations and at local attractions like the Carnegie Museum, which houses a community history collection that dates back to 1876. Kendra and Richard also expanded to a YouTube channel, Greetings from Fairfield, to document their restoration progress. They love celebrating the seasons in Fairfield and go all out to decorate the house for holidays, whether it’s with patriotic bunting, a spooky Halloween scene or a festive light display that’s been named Fairfield’s best.
“Our number one comment when we post a picture of the house covered in snow is that it must cost a fortune to heat,” Kendra said. “It costed more to heat our teeny tiny two-bedroom house in Portland.”
Discovering Midwest Connections
Moving their business to the Midwest also uncovered some perks, as shipping east of the Rocky Mountains is less costly. And local connections have created unique opportunities – they now operate out of a building that formerly housed the KRUU radio station and help one of the women in town broadcast her church program in exchange for fresh produce.
Though they might be considered outsiders, Kendra, who is originally from Hannibal, Missouri, and Richard, who grew up in Long Beach, California, have since discovered Iowa roots. Richard’s grandfather is from Iowa, and his family history in the state goes further back than he ever would have imagined.
“When I started to research, I found in the Des Moines Tribune that my great-great grandfather came to Iowa in a covered wagon in 1846 before Iowa was officially a state,” Richard said. “His name is on a plaque somewhere at the Capitol to commemorate Iowa residents who were 100 years of age at the centennial celebration in 1946. I had no idea about the origin of our family’s Iowa history before moving here.”
