A Catholic clergyman, John McClean, arranged for the house to be built; however, he sold it to Richard Douglas, a local lawyer, before construction was complete. Douglas owned the property little longer than did McClean, dying soon after it was finished. The house's most prominent resident was William Edwin Safford, who lived there as a boy; growing to adulthood, he developed a strong reputation as a leading naturalist in the islands of the South Pacific Ocean, and he was later appointed to be the first Vice-Governor of Guam after the United States conquered the island in 1898.