A rare surviving Greek Revival bowfront for this neighborhood, the building retains a broad masonry frieze and dormers with original pediments. Greenleaf Sanborn, a housewright very active in the first South End neighborhood of Boston, developed this property with housewright Thatcher Ross and mason Thomas Wait. The building contracts document that Sanborn acted as his own architect. Jacob Wirth acquired the eastern half in 1878 and established a retail outlet for his wine and beer import business on the ground floor below his residence. In 1889 he expanded into the adjoining house and added the storefront with cast-iron columns. Later the family established a German restaurant that remained in the Wirth family until 1965.