Built in 1763, it is one of the town's oldest surviving houses, and was for many years a tavern and social center of the community.

[1] The Hobbs House is located on the south side of Wells Street (Maine State Route 9), just east of its junction with Elm Street (Maine State Route 4) and west of the Great Works River in North Berwick's village center.

It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, five bays wide, with a side-gable roof, central chimney, clapboard siding, and a fieldstone foundation.

[2] The house was built in 1763 for Thomas Hobbs Jr., a veteran of the French and Indian War.

It became known locally as The Hostelry, because Hobbs provided food and lodging to travelers.