While Denver assessor records list the year of construction for 1736 Downing Street as 1902, it appears that the building was built much earlier, prior to 1887. No building permits could be located to confirm this date, but the house is shown on the 1887 Robinson Atlas of Denver. Buildings in this part of the city of Denver after 1863 were required to be of masonry consruction. Because this house appears to be constructed with neight brick nor stone indicates that the house may have been built even before this 1863.
An 1888 Rocky Mountain News article lists the sale of the property by Fred D. Bailey, a Denver real estate broker, to David H. Ludlow. The sales price of $5200 also confirms that the house was already on the parcel. David Hunt Ludlow was born in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1857. After graduating in 1875 from the University of Tennessee, Ludlow practiced law in Philadelphia before coming to Denver in 1887 to attend medical school at Gross Medical College. After his graduation in 1892, Ludlow practiced medicine for several years. A textbook overachiever, city directories show that he also served as a Denver sales agent for the Mason and Hamlin piano company. Ludlow came from a family of accomplished individuals: his brother, Henry Hunt Ludlow chose a military career, becoming a colonel in the United States Army, and his sister Clara was an expert in tropical diseases. In 2016, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene created an award named for Clara Southmayd Ludlow.
