Having previously been attached to James M. Seabrook's residence next door at 1318, the lot at 1320 East Market Street was sold in 1922 for the purpose of buidling a new home. Dr. James H. Ashabranner, MD and his wife, Mary, purchased the property in November 1923 and took up residence briefly across the street at 1321 while their new home was under construction. Prior to turning to medicine. Dr. Ashabranner served as the secretary of the YMCA and ran its library. In 1904, he became the first librarian at the newly-completed Carnegie Library at Bank and Spring streets in downtown New Albany. Although his medical career spanned more than 30 years, including seeing patients here at 1320 East Market for about a decade, Dr. Ashabranner's literary pursuits continued. Many of his poems were included in national magazines and a collection of his short stories, Out of the Deep, was published in 1931. Having been widowed and confined to St. Edward's Hospital for the last three years of his life, Dr. Ashabranner passed away in 1936. Thomas and Anna Wright then purchased the house from Dr. Ashabranner's estate for $4,650 in the fall of that year. In addition to their residence, the Wrights made use of the former office space for their furrier business, The Wright Fur Shop. The fur shop contined operation until the mid-1940s, when the Wrights began to rent the three-room space on the home's west side as a small apartment, a practice that continued until about 1965.