2841 and 2835 West 24th Avenue are two nearly identical residences built on lots bought by Paul Sedlmayr in 1896. Sedlmayr was a German immigrant employed by Zang Brewery. Sedlmayr, his wife and 11 children lived nearby, but moved to 2841 West 24th Avenue by the mid-1910s. In 1915, Sedlmayr's son died on a roller coaster at Lakeside Amusement Park.
The Sedlmayr family used 2835 West 24th Avenue as a rental property. Its first residents were Alfred and Edith May in 1902. Alfred was a printer with the Western Newspaper Union.
By 1910, the 2835 residence was occupied by Frank A. Prestidge and his wife and two children. Prestidge moved from England to Denver in 1900 when a doctor recommended Colorado's climate as a cure for his wife Emily's respiratory problems.
Prestidge practiced law, specializing in wills, mining corporations and international law. He represented several prominent British investors, including Lord Dunraven, who owned the 7,000-acre Dunraven Ranch in Estes Park. Prestidge negotiated the sale of Dunraven's property in 1908 to Freeland Oscar Stanley, who established the Stanley Hotel. Prestidge gained fame in the New York Times after successfully locating the "Cowboy Baronet," who was the heir of the Cave-Browne-Cave family of England.
Prestidge was also an investor in the Mary Murphy Gold Mining Company and served on the board of the Western Colorado Power Company. The latter company provided power in the mining, ranching and fruit-growing areas of Western Colorado.
Prestidge moved from 2835 West 24th Avenue to a residence on Court Place in 1918, and retired two years later in California.
In 1924, Sedlmayr sold 2835 West 24th Avenue to Joseph Schmittling, who lived in the residence with his wife Minnie and son. Schmittling was born in Illinois to German immigrants, and worked as a molder at the Capitol Foundry Company. The Schmittling family took in renters, including a sausage maker, a fireman with the Union Pacific Railroad and a ticket seller with the Burlington railroad.
In 1943, Fred and Alvina Richards purchased the house and owned it until 1988. Fred worked as a shopkeeper at Presbyterian Hospital.
