An important surviving example of a type of urban vernacular wooden house once common in the outlying neighborhoods and suburbs of Boston, this two-and-a-half-story dwelling is only one bay deep and stands with a gable roof perpendicular to the street. A long two-story ell for the kitchen, woodshed, and privy project from the rear. One enters the side-hall plan through recessed-panel pilasters that support an entablature with archaeologically correct proportions, repeated in the corner boards and entablature above the second-floor windows. The barest suggestion of a pediment is formed out of cornice moldings in the gable ends. Local carpenter Samuel W. Dudley sold the house in 1840 to Josiah Richardson, a fruit dealer whose shop was located in Market Square.