William Stembel was born in Frankfurt, Germany and arrived in Melbourne in the early 1850s. He moved soon after to Bendigo where he established a business as a chemist. He later switched to the restaurant trade and ran the refreshment rooms at the Bendigo and Kyneton railway stations. While he was in Melbourne he ran a restaurant at the top end of Collins Street. Later, after his return to Bendigo, he ran Stembel's Private Hotel. He died in Bendigo in 1901.

William Stembel owned and occupied Devon House for about one year before returning to Bendigo. He sold the house to Mrs. Jane Mary Law, a dressmaker with a business at the top end of Collins Street. She lived in Jolimont Road and leased the house out. She owned it until her death in 1910. The house was a boarding house until the 1940s.