It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior.

Its main facade is five bays wide, with a center entrance, flanked by slightly asymmetrically placed windows.

The interior of the house exhibits finishes and alterations from a wide variety of dates, most notably from the early and late 18th century.

[2] The house's oldest portion, the southern end, was built by James Hazelton (1694–1773), an early settler of the Haddam area, in about 1720, and was widened in about 1780 and the rear leanto section added.

Hazelton's son had no children, and willed the property to a "kinsman" (thought to be either a close friend or distant relation), John Hayden, and his son Arnold Hazelton Hayden, in the early 19th century.