While Denver assessor records list the year of construction for 2223 Gilpin as 1900, it was likely constructed several years earlier. The address first appears in city directories in 1898, associated with John Hutton. While no building permit could be located for the main residence, reference to a permit for a 1.5-story stable (extant) at the address was made in the August 3, 1897 Rocky Mountain News. The permit was issued to a Hutton.
John Hutton, Jr. was born in 1842 in New York to John and Mary Hutton. The Hutton family moved to Wisconsin in the mid-1840s where they farmed. John Jr. fought with the Fortieth Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War, and married Mary Gaffney around 1871. By 1879, the couple had moved to Leadville where John worked as a teamster. They moved to Denver in 1884, where John worked as a janitor for a number of schools in the city. John and Mary often rented rooms in their house to various middle-class tenants, including a taxidermist, a traveling salesman, a dairyman, and mechanic. Ownership of the house was transferred from John to Mary in 1916. John died in 1921. Mary continued to rent rooms at 2223 Gilpin Street until 1929.
