The Dr. W.D. Rankin House is noted for its various owners on the years, including Dr. Rankin himself.

Constructed sometime between 1876 and 1887, one of the original owners of this house was a worker at the woodworking factory at the corner of Elm and Green streets. This is notable as the owner apparently ran pipes from the factory to his house to heat it with steam.

The house was eventually purchased by the estate of John Fisher of the Small & Fisher Foundry, who in turn sold the building to Dr. William D. Rankin in 1905. The Rankin family had actually previously left Woodstock for Vancouver, supposedly to avoid the rough Woodstock winter, but they returned less than a year later.

Dr. W.D. Rankin was an important part of the Woodstock medical community, having played an instrumental role in establishing the first Carleton County Hospital in the former Miles Moore House on Prince William Street in 1902. During his ownership of this home, Dr. Rankin installed a wood furnace in the house and turned the front parlor into his medical office.

Also of note is Rankin's wife, Jennie Sharp. Jennie was related to three notable figures in Woodstock history - her father Francis Peabody Sharp, a businessman and famed pomologist (a botanist who specializes in fruits) who pioneered controlled hybridization in apples, her sister Minnie Bell Sharp, the first New Brunswick woman to run in a Canadian federal election, and lastly Minnie's husband Tappan Adney, a renowned historian and canoe-maker.