The 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house was built before 1747 by John Waterman, who was licensed to operate a tavern on the premises in that year.

The site was advantageously located on the main road between Providence and Plainfield, Connecticut.

The tavern was a center of civic discourse, and town meetings were regularly held there until 1835.

[2] The tavern was one of the first stops along the route taken by Count de Rochambeau's army during its 1781 march from Providence to Yorktown, Virginia during the American Revolutionary War.

This article about a Registered Historic Place in Kent County, Rhode Island is a stub.