It was built about 1780 by William Colburn, one of the area's first white settlers, and is one of the few 18th-century houses surviving in Maine's central interior.

[1] The William Colburn House is located north of Orono's downtown, on the west side of Bennoch Road (Maine State Route 16), between Noyes and Winterhaven Drives.

The center bay contains an unusually wide doorway, that includes flanking sidelight windows and a fanlight.

The interior of the house retains original woodwork and finishes, include wide pine floors, wainscoting, and a large kitchen fireplace with crane and builtin ovens.

They fled the area at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and returned in 1780, at which time they built two houses.