The house was completed in 1867 at a cost of $900 by the Congregational Church as its parsonage. It’s constructed of native limestone and is the oldest Congregational Church parsonage in the state. The structure was previously listed in the National Historic Registry, however, it lost the designation in 1975 when structural weakness required a buttress to be added to the west exterior wall. In 1870 the trustees of the church wanted to build a house of worship, as they had been meeting in homes and the school. They sold the parsonage for $975 to raise proceeds for the new church.
The property changed hands a couple of times until it was purchased by civil war veteran Dr. Jesse Fate in 1893. In 1894, Dr. Fate built the doctor’s office next door and went on to practice medicine for the next 47 years. Dr. Fate’s children from his second marriage, Clara and John, grew up in the home and attended school in Weeping Water. Clara inherited the home after the deaths of Dr. Fate in 1928 and his wife Ellen in 1929. She came to live in the house upon her retirement as a librarian in 1958. Clara Fate passed away in 1965 at the age of 82. The house remained in the Fate family until 1967, when the Weeping Water Historical Society purchased the home and doctor’s office along with many of the original Fate family furnishings from Clara’s nephew, Col. Robert Fate.
Many of the furnishings remaining in the home belonged to the Fate family. The organ in the parlor belonged to a local Christian Science Church before it disbanded. The stairway leading to the second floor is covered with carpeting dating to the 1890s which served as aisle runners in the old Congregational Church, which was lost to fire in 1990. Many of the small objects are from the home of Miss Myrtle Wood, whose parents brought them from Missouri in a covered wagon in 1866. Outside the home, you will see the school bell from the original 1876 grade school. The hoodlum wagon located on the southwest corner of the property was used by a local quarry and donated by the Lonnie Wade family.
The Heritage House is located on West H Street between Randolph and Commercial Streets.
