Jacob F. Schoellkopf, also called "King Jacob" in his day, was 63 when he, his wife, and some of their seven children, moved into their new house at 553 Delaware Avenue in 1882. He had arrived in America in 1841 and two years later, with an $800 loan from his father, he opened a leather store in Buffalo. He also purchased his first tannery and went on to own a number of tanneries in the United States. His profits enabled him to invest in flour milling, expanding his interests into Niagara Falls, which later led to his investment in the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company.

The family used the home to entertain on a grand scale. The News said in 1936, "Many a Saturday night or holiday eve, the old mansion glittered with electric lights fed with the power Jacob Schoellkopf had harnessed at Niagara Falls to form the foundation of the vast Schoellkopf fortune. Carriages lined the surrounding streets while footmen slapped their shoulders to keep warm as the night wore on."

Jacob F. Schoellkopf died in 1899; his wife died in 1903. Their daughter, Helen, married to Hans Schmidt (president of the J.F. Schoellkopf Co.) and their three children lived in the mansion until they moved to a new mansion in Derby in 1918. The house was sold to Harlow C. Curtis, who transformed the home into a boarding house.

The house was purchased by Jacob F. Schoellkopf III for the family's Seeheim Corporation, and in 1936 the property was leased to the Hygrade Oil & Fuel Corporation. The company applied for a demolition permit, intending to construct a gas station on the plot. Objections were filed by Councilman John Selkirk on the grounds that it would depreciate surrounding property values, but the Delaware Avenue Assocation supported the proposal provided the architecture was in keeping with the surrounding neighborhood. The company promised that the final plans would meet the approval of the Association. The site remains a gas station in 2010, albeit a quaint one.