It is a small one-story frame-and-clapboard structure and is typical of American cottages in the late 19th century.

[2] The house was built on land purchased by Hiram Wetherbee in 1873,[2] though the actual construction date is uncertain.

[3] Wetherbee was a Civil War veteran, having served with an Illinois Regiment of the Union army which for a time operated in the Greenville area.

[3] Several additions were made to the house since it was originally built, one not long after the first construction, one in 1900, and one later in the first half of the twentieth century.

[2] The house stayed with the Wetherbee family until it was sold in 1973 to Council of Greenville Garden Clubs for use as a meeting place and museum.