It is rare and unusual for its design, which places the gable end facing the street, rather than to the side as was more typical in the Federal period.

The entrance is flanked by pilasters and topped by a half-round transom, and is sheltered by a gabled hood with elongated carved brackets.

[2] When this house was built in 1810, Orange Street was a fashionable upper-class residential area; it has since been transformed into a largely commercial district of the city's downtown.

It was built for John Cook, a prominent local merchant, who sold it in 1812 to William Pinto, a member of one of the first Jewish families to settled in New Haven.

Pinto served in the state militia during the American Revolutionary War, and was one of its most successful West Indies merchants.