It is a wooden Greek Revival house built in two phases in the 1820s, the center of a farm that remained working until the mid-20th century.

Willsey Brook bounds it on the south, and the canal bed, now dry and overgrown, is located in the woods a few hundred feet (approximately 100 m) to the east.

It is sided in clapboard, with a gabled roof pierced by a large fieldstone and brick chimney and shingled in asphalt, decorated with a wide frieze and molded cornice at the roofline.

[2] A full-length veranda, with shed roof supported by plain wooden pillars and a concrete deck wraps around the eastern (front) and north facades.

There is a large kitchen in the northern section, created by removing one wall, but otherwise the original floor plan remains intact.

[2] Lawrence Masten's grandfather Johannes was an early Dutch settler in the narrow Basha Kill valley between the Shawangunk Ridge and Catskill Plateau.

His 1,000-acre (400 ha) farm produced several hundred bushels of wheat annually during the late 18th century, most of it harvested by Masten's slaves, said to be the most owned by any one man in what became Sullivan County.

Father transferred more to son in the 1830s, including the land on which he had already built his house, building the farm to a total of 100 acres (40 ha).

When completed and opened in 1828, this allowed Masten access to goods and markets for his dairy products far from the town of Mamakating, such as Kingston to the north and the communities along the Delaware River in western Sullivan County.