A wealthy East Coast industrialist, Freelan Oscar Stanley and his twin brother, Francis Edgar Stanley, amassed sizable fortunes by inventing a dry-plate photographic process and the Stanley Steamer automobile. After F. O. was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he and Flora vacationed in Estes Park with hopes that the region’s cool mountain air would provide a cure. Finding his health improved, Stanley arranged for the construction of an impressive Colonial Revival summer residence outside Estes Park. Designed and built in the tradition of the grand Georgian and Federal style houses constructed during the 1700s in Stanley’s native New England, the Stanley House represents the diaspora of the Colonial Revival style from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountain west. The plans were developed by Stanley, likely in association with the Denver architectural firm of Kidder and Wieger, and served as the architectural prototype for the National Register-listed Stanley Hotel built by Stanley between 1907 and 1912.