Located along West Main Street, it is a square brick structure resting on a foundation of stone and covered with an asphalt roof.

[3] The house was constructed circa 1860, although its precise date of erection — as well as the names of its first owner and its designer — is unknown.

[1] Only two or three monitor houses, featuring an elevated center, are known to exist in Ohio, and the one in St. Paris is architecturally the most well-preserved;[3] consequently, it is considered historically significant statewide.

[2] In contrast, a similar monitor house in Chillicothe, known as "Tanglewood," is only considered locally significant.

[4] The house in St. Paris was the first of over thirty places in Champaign County to be listed on the National Register; it is one of two in the village with this distinction, along with the Kiser Mansion on East Main Street.