[1] The Treadwell-Sparks House stands on the north side of Kirkland Street, opposite Harvard's Memorial Hall.

The street-facing facade is characterized by unusually wide plain pilasters and flushboarding, while the formal front is finished in wooden clapboards.

[2] The house was built, originally on nearby Quincy Street, in 1838 by housewright William Saunders for Harvard Professor Daniel Treadwell.

[2] The house was purchased from Sparks' heirs by the New Church Theological School and served as the New England training center for Swedenborgian ministers.

In 1901 Langford Warren, architect and member of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian), designed and oversaw the construction of a chapel, rotating the house and moving it a short distance on its lot.