The home is located in Shillington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of the City of Reading.

[1][2] Living in the house from the time he was born until he was thirteen years of age, Updike wrote his first fiction, poetry and prose in the house and "famously said it was where his 'artistic eggs were hatched.

[4][6][7][8] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 22, 2019.

[9] In 2021, the home received a Pennsylvania Historic Marker and was opened as a museum operated by the John Updike Society.

[10] The museum features ten rooms of exhibits that discuss Updike's childhood and the influence the area had on him and his writing.