Born in 1832, Frederick Fabing became one of Sandusky County's leading businessmen by the late nineteenth century.

At the age of thirty, he joined three other local businessmen to buy a dying gasworks, steamfitting, and plumbing company in Fremont; they succeeded in making it profitable, and it remained in business for several decades.

Most surviving buildings in Fremont are no older than the late nineteenth century, and various vernacular styles are prevalent; the 1850s Second Empire architecture of the Fabing House is radically different from many surrounding structures.

Among its prominent features are a square tower with a mansard roof, an ornamental overdoor, a large bracketed cornice with dentils, elaborate metalwork and dormer windows, a multi-part frieze, and decorative hoodmolds.

[2] By the late twentieth century, Fabing's house was no longer exclusively a residence; it had become both home and office for a local physician.