It was designed by architect Eleanor Raymond and had a heating system developed by physicist Mária Telkes.

In 1948, Mária Telkes and architect Eleanor Raymond began working on the Dover Sun House.

[2] The project was funded by philanthropist and sculptor Amelia Peabody, and built on her property in Dover, Massachusetts.

The house was heated by a system designed so that Glauber's salt (a form of sodium sulfate) was allowed to melt in a solar-heated space.

The owners had to remove the system when, by the third winter, there were problems with the sodium sulfate, which had built up in layers of liquid and solid material, and its containers were corroded and leaking, and the continuous melting and cooling of the Glauber's salt prevented the substance from mixing properly.