Two other homes on West River Drive are nearly identical to this residence in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, and were likely constructed by the same builder. This house was originally addressed as 256 River Drive when it was built in 1889. Bernhard Muehlhausen, a clerk at the nearby Zang Brewing Company, lived here that year.
John Petterson lived in the home with his wife and daughter as early as 1891, and he purchased the residence in 1897. John, who emigrated from Sweden in 1855 as a child, worked as an express messenger for the Denver & Rio Grande railroad. His daughter Calla contracted typhoid fever shortly after graduating East High School in 1908. John's wife Elizabeth moved with her to Los Angeles in 1911 to improve Calla's health. John stayed behind in Denver, renting out extra rooms in the house to boarders. In August 1912, John took his own life. Elizabeth took over ownership of the house, renting rooms in the house to an inventor, a farmer and two female employees of the Inland Box & Label Company.
Frank and Mary Jane Terrell bought the house in 1924. Frank was born in England in 1858 and immigrated to the United States in 1881. Frank worked as a teamster. He continued to live here after Mary Jane's death in 1937.
