It was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1976,[1] making it the first NRHP site in Micronesia.

Together with Adolph Capelle, DeBrum purchased Likiep Atoll from his Marshallese wife's chief, Iroij Elap Jortaka, during the 1870s.

[citation needed] The Debrum House was finished in 1888 as a small, single-story frame building on concrete piers, with a high-pitched thatch roof.

Nearby are a storage building, a detached dining room-kitchen, several cisterns, the family graveyard, and the remains of several structures that have since collapsed.

The house also contained over 1,000 books from DeBrum's personal library and research, and sound recordings believed to be some of the earliest taken in Micronesia.