This building played a role in the U.S. military occupation of California after its seizure from Mexico during the Mexican–American War.

This small adobe building served as headquarters for Lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman and military secretary of state Henry W. Halleck from 1847 to 1849[2] while they served under Colonel Richard Barnes Mason, military governor of California before it became a state.

[6][7][8] The building was originally part of a large piece of property at Calle Principal between Jefferson and Madison Streets, in Monterey, California.

[3] The one-story building is clad with fieldstone with painted earthen plaster that is now peeling showing the adobe brick beneath.

[1][11][12][10][13] The artist Percy Gray, a California Impressionist, and his wife Leone Phelps, purchased the house in 1923 and renovated it.

[15] The Sherman Quarters was designated as a significant building in the city's Monterey Downtown Area Context Statement and Survey, and was recorded by the Architectural Resources Group, with the Department of Parks and Recreation in June 2011.