The first owner, Henry Slingerland built the house about 1860 on a hill overlooking the warehouses and docks of his freighting business. Mr. Slingerland had purchased the freighting business from John J. Colvin (whom the side street bordering the property is named after) and owned much of the waterfront in the town of Coeymans. The house was built to sit in the middle of Westerlo Street with the round porch looking directly down the street toward the Hudson River. From the porch, the Slingerland family could sit and look down the street at their warehouses and ships as they would arrive in port. Henry was not only a merchant but also a ship Captain and grew the business rapidly. In 1906 Henry died after a series of unexplained fires that wiped out his warehouses along the river. One notable feature of the house is a hidden trap door in the floor of the upstairs linen closet. It is believed that the hidden room the door accesses above the kitchen was part of the underground railroad for slaves trying to make their way to Canada.

In 1886 Conrad Francis Suderley moved to Coeymans with his wife Martha purchasing the house from her father Henry Slingerland. He had started a local brick yard, Sutton and Suderley Brick Co. in 1885. He was president of his brick company and one of the organizers and president of the First National Bank of Ravena, of which he was also the largest stockholder. Conrad Suderley died suddenly on December 10, 1924 and left his son John to run the companies. In 1963 the brick plant was sold to Powell and Minnock Brick Company which now sits idle along the river. Martha Slingerland Suderley is buried in the local cemetary.

Joseph Frangella purchased the house in the 1920s. In 1929 James Frangella, one of the five sons of Joseph asked his father's permission to grow a four by four foot box of mushrooms in their cellar. Because of his success, the family decided to buy the abadoned building of the Atlantic Light and Power Company to begin a musroom company. Because mushroom sales and prices varied from day to day, depending on the weather and time of year, the company decided to enter the canning business. The cannery completed in 1957, entered business under the name Fran Mushrooms and was processing 6,000,000 pounds of mushrooms a year employing over 200 people. The Frangella presence in the house is still evident in the letter "F" etched in the glass shower door of the main bathroom. During the 1920's while the Frangella family supposedly preached temperance (abstinence of alcohol) out of the house, they maintained lots of liquor in the hidden room above the kitchen, often throwing wild parties. The house got its name from their public "Temperance" stance.

Thomas Cooper purchased the house from the Frangella family in the 1980's and began the process of updating the house. Notably he brought modern electric wiring along with a new electric distribution panel to the home. Mr. Cooper adds to the rich history of previous owners as the New York State Chair of the Martin Luther King Commission.

In January 2002, John Allen bought the house and began the extensive restoration that is partially documented in these web pages. Mr. Allen came to New York after being recruited to coordinate the outreach efforts of Project Liberty, New York States mental health response to the 9/11 disaster.