The two-story, gable-front Greek Revival house possesses a pediment with a full, deep entablature and is sheathed by horizontal matched boarding. Its three-bay facade is divided by four full-height pilasters. A rope pattern decorates the piers that support the symmetrical entrance porch roof. The west and rear wings are later additions. Apparently the house was built for Ebenezer A. Howes (Howe?) and was acquired in 1840 by Robert McClelland (1807–1880). McClelland was a Michigan legislator, governor from 1851 to 1852, U.S. congressman, and secretary of the interior under President Franklin Pierce. The Second Empire house nearby at 25 E. Elm Avenue was built for Joseph Dansard in the 1870s.