The south end of this structure was the 20-by-20-foot Richard Arnold, Jr., House, which was the beginning of the village and of English settlement in the Woonsocket area. It was extended to its present size at the end of the eighteenth century by the patriot Pelog Arnold, who operated the house as an inn. He used its tavern as a recruitment center and depository for arms during the Revolution. Pelog Arnold rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and eventually became chief justice successively of the Rhode Island Superior Court and Supreme Court. The building remained a tavern into the twentieth century, until its conversion into apartments.