It was built in 1785,[1][2] when the town was part of North Yarmouth (then a part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay), around seventy years after the third and earliest permanent settlement of the town.

[3] Standing on East Main Street, at the corner of Yankee Drive, the property became the home of deacon Calvin Stockbridge, brother of merchant William Stockbridge, who lived across East Main Street.

Grist mill and sawmill owner Peter Weare also lived here.

[5] It has also served as a tavern, a general store and, between 1900 and 1907, a college preparatory and home school for girls, known as Stockbridge Hall[6] and run by Alice and Minerva Dufour.

Between 1997 and 2010, it was the oldest and largest American elm in New England.