Born in Manchester, Connecticut, House's father operated a regional department store, and House decided to become a lawyer after spending a summer delivering ice to Manchester households, which often involved carrying blocks of ice up several flights of stairs.
[2][3] After briefly working for a prominent law firm in Hartford, Connecticut, House served as a local prosecutor and deputy judge in Manchester.
[4] He was elected to represent Manchester the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1941,[2] and to two terms in the Connecticut State Senate, beginning in 1947, serving as Republican minority leader from 1949 to 1951.
[4][2] He chaired the town's Board of Education from 1942 to 1953,[4] and from 1951 to 1953 he served as a legal adviser to Governor John Davis Lodge.
[2][3] In 1977, he authored an opinion of the court that he considered to be his most significant legal achievement, writing in Horton v. Meskill that public schools relying on local property taxes resulted in unconstitutional inequality, and requiring the state to provide funds to balance the resources of schools in poorer districts.