Arthur and Stella Sanford acquired the Sanford House in 1936 from lumber baron George and Mary Avery. Arthur was born in Minneapolis to Austrian-Jewish immigrants James and Edith Sanford and was immersed in business from birth at his father's mercantile store. He dropped-out of the University of Minnesota and Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. He interned at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co and served in World War I as a sergeant major in a logistics casual company in Paris.
