A single-story ell extends to the right of this section, with an open porch across its front.

[2] The house was built in 1849 for Basil Dorsey, an African American who escaped slavery in 1836 with abolitionist help.

The lot on which it was built was purchased from the Bensonville Manufacturing Company, the silkmaking business of abolitionist George Benson.

An itinerant preacher, Jones was rarely present, and the family moved from Florence to Worcester in 1859.

The escapes from slavery by both Dorsey and Jones are well-documented in contemporary papers of abolitionists and Underground Railroad operatives.