Architect Theodore Wells (1889–1976) and his wife, Louise, raised two daughters in this cottage-style house. Before establishing his architectural practice, Wells studied civil engineering at UND (graduating in 1913) and in 1914 interned with Robert B. Stacy-Judd in Minot. Wells served with the U.S. engineering corps in France in 1918 and, in 1919, he spent a brief time in the Atelier Jaussely at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he expanded on his engineering background. Wells’s long architectural association with Grand Forks included more than two hundred and sixty built commissions, a remarkable level of productivity considering that some of his prime years as an architect were during the Great Depression. His work includes many residences, fraternity and sorority houses, movie theaters, schools and university buildings, and other major public buildings. Having served on the North Dakota State Board of Architecture, Wells’s generosity in bringing a new generation of architects into his practice was described with admiration by his eventual partner Myron Denbrook, who joined the practice in 1948. Wells retired to California, where he died after being struck by an automobile.