The house at the corner of Brown and Cumberland streets in Portland was the birthplace of Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar Curtis, who went on to become a publishing magnate.

Curtis (1850-1933) founded such magazines as Ladies' Home Journal and rescued a failing Saturday Evening Post.

Hermann Kotzschmar, the musician for whom Curtis was named, lived with Cyrus L. and Salome C. Curtis for about a year when he first came to Portland and before the younger Cyrus was born.