William Rickenbacker built this house in 1893, and the family moved in when Eddie Rickenbacker was three years old. After William's death in 1904, Eddie's mother, Elizabeth Basler Rickenbacker, raised her seven surviving children here. In his 1967 autobiography, Eddie recalled that his parents bought a lot 150 by 200 feet in east Columbus and that his father built their little house with a little cash, a lot of credit, and his own hands. He remembered that it had two rooms on the ground floor and two smaller lightless, unheated rooms in the attic where the children slept, with no electricity, no running water, and no heat other than the kitchen stove, yet it was their home and they were proud of it. He also remembered a pleasant summer day in 1893 when the family got off the East Livingston Avenue horsecar at the end of the line and headed into what was then almost open countryside in Columbus. Although the house on Livingston Avenue was filled with happiness, he also recalled periods of financial difficulty and lean winters when the children sometimes did not have enough warm clothes to go to school.
