Thomas B. Croke, who gained fame as a merchant and experimental plant breeder and later served as a state senator, commissioned the house and lived there until he sold the property to Thomas M. Patterson in 1893. Patterson served as a territorial delegate to Congress in 1874, a U.S. Congressman in 1877-79, U.S. Senator from 1901 to 1907, and edited and published the Rocky Mountain News until 1913. Patterson's daughter, Margaret, married Richard C. Campbell, and the couple lived with the Senator until 1916.
