The building we know today as the Old Stone House was originally a family farmhouse, built by Swiss immigrant Emil Bruderlin in 1889. Mr. Bruderlin was a well-known and highly-respected man in the Denver-Brighton area. Emil and his wife, Anna, were both natives of Switzerland, and the Old Stone House was modeled after their childhood homes. The house is constructed of sandstone brought from the Platte River near Deckers, Colorado, by 27 narrow-gauge railroad cars.

Emil Bruderlin came to the United States at the age of 10 with his family. They settled in Iowa, where Emil learned the bookbinding business, then came to Colorado in about 1860. Mr. Bruderlin worked for the Rocky Mountain News bindery, the Denver Tribune, and the Denver Lithographic Company. He was a founding member of Denver's Swiss Lodge, Gruetli Verein. According to Swiss friends and acquaintances would often come to Barr from Denver for gatherings at the Bruderlin house in celebration of Swiss holidays.

What seems to have been a rather idyllic life in the country for the Bruderlin family was shattered on April 29, 1892, by Emil Bruderlin's tragic death. He was returning to Barr from a shopping trip in Denver, where he had purchased gifts for his family. According to several newspaper accounts, he forgot a package on the train. He reboarded the train, but when he attempted to get off it was already moving, and he was thrown under it. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Bruderlin moved the family to Denver.

A family named Hood lived in the house from 1907 to 1925, and made a few changes to the building. After that there is a gap in the documented history of the property, although it appears to have been used for a time as a boarding house. In the 1950s the house was abandoned, and in 1976 the Colorado Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation purchased the house and surrounding acreage from the Brighton East Development Company. The Parks Division retains ownership to the present time. In 1996, the house was listed as a State Historical Property by the Colorado Historical Society.