[1] The Nichols House stands in a rural area of eastern Barre, on the northern corner of the four-way junction of Little John, Waterman, Donahue, and Lowery Roads.

It is a 1+1⁄2-story wood-frame Cape-style house with a gabled roof, central chimney, and clapboarded exterior.

A modern ell, also 1+1⁄2 stories, extends to the right, stepped back from the main block.

[2] Thomas Nichols moved with his family to the Barre area in 1799 from Worcester, Massachusetts, and built this house.

It is an extremely rare example of a vernacular pre-Greek Revival house in the Barre-Montpelier area.