The property on which this house stands was owned by several notable California pioneers, including John Bidwell and Charles D. Semple. Who built the house and exactly when remains unknown, but its first resident was Stewart Harris, the first mayor of Colusa. After his death in 1891, the house passed to his wife Eliza and then to their adopted daughter Emma Lovelace, who had married Uriah Waverly Brown in 1889. Uriah Waverly Brown neither built nor ever owned the house that came to bear his name, but he lived there for more than 60 years and was recognized as the leading attorney in Colusa County. A member of E Clampus Vitus, he died there in 1952 at the age of 92.