Built about 1790, it is a prominent local example of Federal period architecture, and was home to David Dexter, whose early mills were the first in the city's industrial history.

The house was moved to its present location in 1975 to avoid demolition, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The David Dexter House is located on a rise now known as Lincoln Heights, north of the Broad Street crossing of the Sugar River.

It is five bays wide and four deep, with sash windows arranged symmetrically around the entrance on the front facade.

In the 1970s the house became the focal point for a long-running preservation debate, whose result was that the building was relocated to its present location, minus a later ell and its original central chimney, in 1975, to make way for an urban redevelopment project.