After a decade of vacancy, it became the home of the Stallard family for much of the early 20th century, the "quiet years" when Aspen's economy was depressed and its remaining residents struggled to make a living.

After World War II it was bought by Walter Paepcke, who like Wheeler came to visit Aspen and invested heavily in its development, leading to the city becoming a cultural center and upscale ski resort.

One block further south the level terrain gives way to the slopes of Aspen Mountain There is a detached garage and parking lot in the rear.

Paneled double wooden doors open into a small lobby, with a closet on the side and stairs leading up in the southeast corner.

[7] Wheeler invested heavily in building a smelter in Aspen, and bringing a railroad connection to the city, while spending the summers in Manitou Springs.

It appears that he began planning to build a permanent residence in the city as early as 1886, when he bought the tracts of land where the house now stands.

[3] There is no record of the house existing before 1890, when Wheeler made his first property tax payment on it and two extant photographs were taken, so it is entirely possible that 1889 was the true year of construction.

No newspaper accounts or other records from the late 1880s suggest Quayle and Wheeler had any contact during the courthouse construction, or that Hale was even in Aspen at that time.

[3] Around this time Wheeler retired from Macy's, possibly as a result of a power struggle with majority partner Charles Webster, allowing him to devote his full attention to his interests in the Colorado mountains.

However, newspaper accounts state that the Wheelers, including Harriet, did make several short visits to Aspen in 1888–89, during which they may well have spent their nights at the house if it was complete.

Jerome Wheeler instead rented it in 1889 to James Henry Devereux, a former manager of his Aspen mining company who had since become an officer of the local electric utility, among his own other business interests around the state.

[14] Woodward eventually became vice president of Wheeler's Aspen bank as well, and he and his wife were prominent in the city's social life, hosting parties at the house.

Woodward may also have been seeking to avoid criminal prosecution for possible illegal acts on Wheeler's behalf during litigation between his employer and a former partner.

He eventually liquidated most of his Aspen interests over the course of 1892, both to pay off debts and legal judgements against him, and because he may have been concerned by drops in the price of silver.

He did not liquidate enough to protect himself from the severe setbacks he incurred the following year, when the Panic of 1893 struck and, as a result, Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act which had kept the Colorado mines in business.

This was the beginning of a half-century of Aspen's history referred to as "the quiet years", during which the collapse of the mining industry and ensuing economic contraction led to a steady population decline.

Unlike the Wheelers, Devereuxs or Woodwards, they could not afford servants, so the rooms set aside for them instead became the bedrooms for their children and, after 1908, two nieces of Mary Ella Stallard they took in after her sister died.

Edgar, who had done business in Aspen since 1889, had been relatively prosperous since the crash, managing and renting properties for newly absentee owners who had left town, but even though he was agent for the Hotel Jerome as well, his income was not enough to support the family.

Mary Ella supplemented it with subsistence farming, growing vegetables on a rear garden and ranching a plot of land outside of town to feed the family's animals, chores in which she was assisted by the Stallard sons when they grew old enough.

[21] One major difficulty was the impracticality of heating a house designed with wealthy and frequently absent occupants in mind through the severe winters of a mountain town almost 8,000 feet (2,400 m) in elevation.

[27] They bought 18 properties around the city, including the house, and commissioned Bauhaus architect Herbert Bayer to help renovate them.

[28] an event considered to have ended the quiet years and begun the development of Aspen into the upscale resort town it is today.

[29] Skiing and the Aspen Music Festival, begun to commemorate the bicentennial of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1949, began attracting visitors to the city.

The interior layout may have been altered during this time, possibly with the closure of the entrance to the servants' stairs in the rear and the entry to the backroom from the foyer and the addition of another bathroom on the first floor.

They had free run of the house, but rarely used its kitchens, instead going out to eat at the Jerome or Red Onion, the only restaurant in Aspen to have stayed open from the boom years.

In 1963, two years after Walter Paepcke died, the house became the home of Alvin Eurich, the Institute's first president, as an employment benefit.

"[34] Other changes made during this period including removing the section of porch that wrapped around the north elevation, supposedly requested by Eurich and his wife, and the current decoration on the first floor.

In 1966, they began hosting the opening cocktail parties of the institute's summer programs at their home, to give participants an experience of Aspen beyond the Meadows complex it occupies.

The Aspen Historical Society, founded in 1963, had previously exhibited in City Hall and the Wheeler Opera House, with no permanent home.

Outside, the picket fence was removed and the gardens redesigned to create a more open public space[37] for the weddings and other events the society rents its grounds for.