Built in 1738, it is a well-preserved example of a Georgian gambrel-roof house, further notable for its association with the locally prominent Gilman family.

[1] The John Gilman House is located north of Exeter's commercial and civic downtown area, at the southeast corner of Cass and Park streets.

Its main facade is five bays wide, with a central entrance flanked by pilasters and topped by a transom and gabled pediment.

Later residents included Thomas Odiorne, son-in-law of the younger Gilman, who was a successful merchant and manufacturer of equipment and parts for sailing ships.

[2] Major John Gilman held an enslaved African boy of fourteen years old, Caesar Nero Paul, in this house as a house-boy.