The front facade is six bays wide, with the main entrance set in the bay left of center; it is topped by a rectangular transom with a sunburst pattern.

The interior retains period woodwork and finishes, although there have been numerous alterations, including the removal of some walls and the addition of partitions.

The former ballroom space on the second floor, extending across the front of the building, has survived with little alteration.

[2] The tavern was built in 1813 by Nathaniel Newell, the son of the local Congregationalist minister Abel Newell, who died the previous year in a typhus epidemic.

Newell was the town's wealthiest citizen and a prominent civic leader, serving in the state legislature.