It was built in 1753 by Founding Father Oliver Wolcott Sr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and a state militia leader in the American Revolutionary War.

[5] The Wolcott House is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof and a large central chimney.

He moved to Litchfield in 1751, and quickly became one of its leading citizens, serving as sheriff, judge, and member of the colonial legislature.

He was also active in the state militia, commanding a brigade at the Second Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, and overseeing Connecticut's defenses later in the war.

In 1784 he served on the delegation which negotiated the Treaty of Fort Stanwix with the remains of the Iroquois Confederacy.