Also known as the Bow and Arrow house for a distinctive balustrade motif it once sported, it was built in 1802 for United States Senator John Holmes, one of western Maine's leading politicians of the period.

[1] The Holmes house is located on the west side of Main Street at the northern end of Alfred Village.

The house has a number of features that are unusual for the location and period, including a two-story wraparound porch, supported by a colonnade of slender columns.

The five-bay front facade faces east, and is symmetrically arranged, with the main entrance centered in an enclosed vestibule, above which is a balcony accessed by a doorway on the second floor.

The bow-and-arrow balustrade, now removed, is said to have been a nod to Holmes' Native American ancestry on his mother's side.