The house was built by John "Talking John" Melbourne Rich, the first of his three houses. John owed his Uncle Jonathan Rich (1836-1907) a sum of money, so he swapped this Tremont house for Jonathan's older less valuable Richtown house. Emily (Rich) Trask (1884-1981), John Melbourne Rich's daughter, said in a 1975 interview that she was born in the house, "in that back bedroom up there… That was a big place. It was different from these days…it had a piazza clean around it and round the front. Father was great on building big places but he got in debt so much that he had to give up and go over to Richville [Richtown] and live."
The main house, minus barn and ell, still exists in 2016, although covered in green asbestos shingles. The house was originally painted a cream color with brown trim. It sits back from the road just before the Tremont Congregational Church.
“The John Melbourne Rich House I in 1910,” Southwest Harbor Public Library, accessed November 22, 2024, https://demo.digitalarchive.us/items/show/6423.Item 7088
