Built in 1823, it was the law office of Joshua Reed Giddings (1795-1864), a prominent abolitionist who served as a U.S. representative from 1838 to 1859.

The building was recognized as a National Historic Landmark for Giddings' role in the slavery debates preceding the American Civil War.

It is a small single-story wood-frame structure, covered by a gabled roof and finished in wooden clapboards.

Giddings was a vocal abolitionist, who pressed debates on slavery during his service in the United States House of Representatives.

His radical pronouncements earned him the censure of Congress for violating the body's gag rule forbidding discussion of slavery.