The house was completed to a Historicist design by Johan Daniel Herholdt in 1862 and listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places in 1977.

Skovgaard purchased one of the first lots when Mozart Waagepetersen started the redevelopment of the Rosendal estate in Østerbro.

Skovgaard, who had that same year become a titular professor at the art academy, in 1860 commissioned the architect Johan Daniel Herholdt to design a house for the site.

The walls were originally decorated with corner lesenes, bands and window frames in red earth coloured finishing.

The interior was originally painted in Pompeian colours with black panels decorated with flowers and animal figures.