The Demaree / Hench House came to embody Newport's growing affluence after 1865, and over the next 150 years it was home to several of the community's leading citizens. Newport businessman, attorney, and Civil War Capt. Albert B. Demaree bought the entire block from Shrub Alley to Third Street from developer Joseph Tate in the 1860s. In 1869, attorney, Lutheran theologian, and Loysville Soldiers Orphans' Home founder David L. Tressler bought the house for $7,750 and shared ownership with W. H. Minick, a former superintendent of the Home who had married Tressler's sister Sarah. When Tressler moved to Illinois in 1870 to become a college president, full title passed to Minick, who became a business leader, helped incorporate the Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad, served as a school director and Newport council president, and later was a delegate to the 1888 Democratic National Convention and a Congressional candidate in 1894. After Minick's death in 1910, the house went to his daughter Emma Tressler Minick, a musician who had married her cousin Arthur Scott, a professional singer in New York City. Two years later, Dr. Sam E. Whitmer bought the building for $8,500, moved his dental practice there, enlarged the porch, and added a second front door for his offices. After his death in 1926, his widow Belle rented lodging and office space to Blaine Bartho, M.D., and Edward P. Hewlings, D.D.S., and in 1938 sold 224 Market to Dr. Bartho and 220 Market to Dr. Hewlings. Hewlings removed the widow's walk and built a garage. After Hewlings' death in 1968, Newport teacher Donald P. Longsderff and his wife Carolyn M. Longsderff bought the house for $15,100. In 1981, attorney Allen and Ellen Pennay Hench acquired it, and in 1988 and 1994 Allen Hench also bought neighboring properties, reuniting the three parcels to their original 1868 lot size. The mid-19th-century Italianate-Victorian house still retains the character of an earlier era, with 12-foot ceilings, a winding 3-story staircase, elaborate mouldings, etched glass, early electric chandeliers, three fireplaces, and large wooden beams with wooden pegs in the attic.