Between 1818 and 1831 Russell made his fortune in the illegal yet highly profitable importation of Turkish and Bengal opium into the port of Canton, and the exportation of fine teas and silks from there to Europe and the United States.

The Russell House was designed by Ithiel Town, one of the period's foremost architects and major proponent of the Greek Revival style in America.

The house has the form of a Greek temple with six full-height Corinthian columns supporting a heavy entablature and low flushboarded pediment.

The south parlors communicate through a set of folding doors, while the original north rooms have been opened up to provide a single large space.

Similarly elaborate decoration is seen in the marble fireplaces, with Ionic columns supporting the mantelpieces, and in the recessed panelling of the doors and folding window shutters.

Professor Talbot Hamlin places its design "in the richest Greek vein" and also states that "its Corinthian columns and open plan are urban and magnificent rather than in the simple old tradition."

Newton elaborates on the latter point when he says that the communicating suite of parlors with their grand scale "may have reflected an urban development quite contrary... to the prevailing modern provincial places."

The Russell House demonstrates an early attempt by Ithiel Town to match the sophisticated design of an imposing Greek temple form with a compatible interior plan suited to living and entertaining on a grand scale.

Its successful application to the temple form provided a basis for vernacular interpretations of the Greek Revival style, which dominated residential construction until the advent of picturesque architecture.

The construction of the Russell House in 1828 established a standard of luxury and elegance for the residential architecture on High Street during the 19th and early 20th centuries.