Walter Allen's house, the first he built in Union Village, established his basic design idiosyncracies. It was the site of the first Roman Catholic services in the area, held in 1829, and was later a tavern. Edgar M. Slocomb, who purchased the house early in the twentieth century, shifted the principal entrance to the rear, adding a Colonial Revival veranda and an upper-story Palladian window to that elevation. So Federal and Colonial Revival are front to back here. The simply detailed shingled barn was probably added at the same time.

In the nineteenth century the Walter Allen House was one of three that functioned as inns and taverns at the intersection of Pound Hill Road and Great Road. The two others, now much renovated, were the Seth Allen House and the George Aldrich Inn. The latter converted to the Smithfield Academy when, in the 1830s, headmaster James Busbee moved in and began to teach classes there. The original house was probably expanded for this purpose. Its porches are reduced variants of the Allen type.