It is a single-story adobe structure, with eleven rooms, built in the Spanish Pueblo style with a central courtyard.

[3] Ernest Blumenschein, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was schooled in art in Cincinnati, New York City, and Paris.

The house itself had previously been used as a home and studio by Herbert Dunton, and was already well known as a gathering point for artists.

The colony formed by these people was broadly influential in exposing the art world to Taos and the desert southwest.

[3] The house remained in the Blumenschein family until 1962, when his heirs donated it to the organization that is now Taos Historic Museums.