Denver assessor records list the build date for 1617 E. 22nd Avenue as 1900. Block 37 of Schinner's Addition, where this property is located, was divided into long narrow lots typical of Denver neighborhoods. The lots that 1617 E. 22nd Avenue sits on, however, lots 13, 14, and 15, were subdivided perpendicularly to allow four homes to be constructed facing E. 22nd Avenue. In 1889, long before construction of the home began, Eugene Lemmon purchased the land. Lemmon, a commercial merchant, was born in 1847 in Illinois. In the 1900 Federal census, Lemmon was widowed and living at 811 E. 22nd Avenue with his four children, Zenaida, Mary, Evan, and Robert. By 1910, he was living at 1601 E. 22nd Avenue with his second wife, Laura, and their two young children, Alpharetta and Eugene.
Lemmon never lived at 1617 E. 22nd Avenue, instead renting out the home. Renters during the Lemmons ownership included the Benjamin Striefling family, who resided there from around 1909 through 1911. Striefling, born in Romania in 1864, lived at the home with his wife, Esther and children Lee, Solon, Anna, and Joe. Striefling worked as a manager at the Red Line Messenger Company where son, Joe, also worked as a bookkeeper.
