History

The home originally had a third-floor cupola which was blown off in a Kansas windstorm.  Early renditions of the home show extensive gingebread trim on the front porch and balcony.  The side porch still retains evidence of this design.  The home had a stone porch built later to modernize the home and make it similar to the Victorian homes.  Interesting interior features include the carved, spiral walnut staircase in the entryway; pocket doors between the formal living area and dining room and a marble mantle and tile-floored fireplace in the master bedroom.  The master bedroom location would typically have been a den or sitting room used primarily by the man of the house and the masculine appearance of the fireplace reflects this use.  The plaster ceiling and medallion in the front parlor are original to the home.  As the front parlor would have been considered part of the domain of the lady of the house, it would have been decorated in a more feminine style and is true to that style today with elegant gold wallpaper.  

The interior furnishings include a massive 1850's Austrian sideboard in the dining room, other antiques, family pieces and antique photographs.  The entryway features Thomas Kinkaid paintings and other paintings in the home are either antique or reflective of Kansas artists. 

The home is situated on three lots which are full of beautiful prairie gardens, brick walking paths, a stone fireplace, restful seating areas and two ponds with fountains. 

The home at 320 East Monroe Street in Sterling, Kansas, was designed and built in the Italianate style in 1879 by Colonel John H. Ricksecker, a decorated civil war veteran.  Colonel Ricksecker was the president of the Sterling Land Company as well as the county attorney and owner of Rick's Cottage, the largest hotel ever in Sterling.  Colonel Ricksecker and his wife Stella lived in the home until 1897.  Hank and Nancy Schichtle, the eighth owners of the home, purchased it in May of 2009. 

The early construction date is evident in much of the interior finish work.  Woodwork, hardware, built-in units and windows are relatively primitive compared to houses built only ten years later.  Although the railroad had been serving Sterling for seven years when the house was built, the manufactured architectural ornaments made possible by the Industrial Revolution and rail system were not as available to Central Kansas in 1879 as they were later in the century.