This stately Italianate-style house was constructed on Prospect Avenue in Cleveland's Central neighborhood in 1871 for railroad executive Louis Kies and his family. The house remained in the Kies family until 1906, when it was purchased by Lewis A. Murfey, a Cleveland native and a prominent figure in Cleveland's financial sector. In 1929, the house was sold, and, like many of the once-grand houses along Prospect Avenue and Euclid Avenue, became a rooming house, which was run by Ella O. Spencer. In 1949, Whaley Industrial Supply Company purchased the house, removing the original porch and converted it into a commercial structure, with a one-story masonry addition being added to the front in order to better connect the house with the sidewalk. In 2002, the house was restored, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Today, it serves as office space, and once again appears much as it did in its heyday.