Charles Hemmer purchased this vacant lot in March 1904 and had this house built. Mr. Hemmer was a grocer and had his business, C. H. Hemmer Grocery, at 527 East 4^th Street in downtown New Albany. The Hemmers’ son, known as “Chalkie,” also lived here. He was a fireman on the Monon Railroad.

The Hemmer family lived here until the early 1920s, when the house saw numerous occupants until the Bernard Hock family purchased the home in the mid 1940s. Mr. Hock was an accomplished table tennis champion and had a company known as the Table Tennis Co. The Hock family was also proprietors of the New Albany company, Fidelity Roofing and Siding, which is still in existence today.

The photo below, from the collection of Indiana Landmarks, shows the home sometime around 1960.