Already in the period before 1901 are address book entries about this address to be found. In the 1858 issue is the merchant E.J. Sternberg mentioned as the owner of this property. In 1866: J.E.G. (Edmund Julius Gottlieb) Sternberg (Ship Owner and Royal Belgian Consul). Finally in 1898: The 'Commerzienrat' and Consul Jul. Sternberg.

In 1909 ist the merchant Tobias Abelmann the property's owner. The remark "cp" indicates that he was a member of the Merchant's Association in Memel, as Sternberg was, too. It is likely that Tobias Abelmann purchased Sternberg 's property around the turn of the century. Maybe he was who built the house in the Art Nouveau style at that time.

In the "Notadreßbuch" from the war year 1915 one finds the merchant and Danish as well as Portuguese Vice-Consul Henry Schmäling registered for the ownership of this property. Henry Schmäling was since some years proprietor of the Dampferexpedition, Spedition und Rhederei Ed. Krause, Börsenstr. 15-17. He became the Chairman of Memel's Merchant's Association in 1917, and after the Association had been converted into a Chamber of Commerce in December 1919, was he its first President.
Henry Schmäling died in 1933. As to be read in the address book from 1942, the house in the Alexanderstraße 24 (at that time 'Adolf-Hitler-Str. 8') remained still owned by the family, probably also until the end of the war.