Soon after E. Warther and Frieda were married in 1910, they bought a narrow property behind Karl Avenue to build their home. In front of the property ran an old millstream called Calico Ditch, which fed a feed mill in Dover. People warned that it was foolish to live at the end of the tiny street, where there were no stone walls or flat place to construct a house. Laughing at that judgment, Warther said the street would have to be nicknamed Dumb Street because the farther down one traveled, the dumber the people got, and he and Frieda lived in the last house.