Ammi Wright (1822–1912) came to Saginaw in 1851 and became a leading member of the group of businessmen who made fortunes here. In 1859 he bought into the established Miller and Paine Sawmill and by 1865 had bought out his partners' shares. He used this mill and three additional mills to generate the capital that he then invested in a retail lumber business, the First National Bank of Saginaw, two railroad companies, and the Saginaw–St. Louis Plank Road. Wright lived in this wood-framed and clapboard-sheathed Italianate home, then at the end of a garden lane of elms on the outskirts of town, until he left Saginaw in 1878; at that time he deeded the house to his brother William. It may have been then that the brothers updated and enlarged the rather typical Michigan farmhouse with the square three-story tower and other Italianate detailing to reflect current fashions and their affluence. The house has intersecting gables with the tower in the ell and a porch along the front.