Dexter purchased the property on which the house stands on March 18, 1761.[5] The house was next door to the parsonage of the First Church and Parish in Dedham, where he grew up.[6] The house was the childhood home of the Secretary of the Treasury Samuel Dexter.[7] Dexter hosted Governor Thomas Hutchinson at the house in 1771.[8]
The home was the site of the funeral of Faith Huntington, who had been living there, on November 28, 1775.[10][8]
The house served as the headquarters of General George Washington for a night following the evacuation of Boston.[8][11][12][13] Washington paid £9.18.7 for use of the home on April 4 to 5, 1776.[11] Dexter had retired to Connecticut by this point, but his fellow Governor's Councilor Joshua Henshaw was living at the house.[14][5]
The house also contained all but two books of records from the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds.[14] They had been removed from Boston to protect them during the military occupation of the capital.[14]
^ ab"Historic Dedham Village"(PDF). Dedham Historical Society. 2010. Retrieved October 10, 2019. Built by merchant Samuel Dexter in 1761, this house held the books of the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds during the 1776 siege of Boston. George Washington slept here on April 4, 1776, on his way to New York after the British were driven from Boston. Originally a hipped roof, two-story Georgian, the Dexter house was changed in 1901 with the addition of a third story and balustrade. Dexter's son (also Samuel) was a U.S. Senator, Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury under President John Adams.
Warren, Charles (1931). Jacobin and Junto: Or, Early American Politics as Viewed in the Diary of Dr. Nathaniel Ames, 1758-1822. Harvard University Press.
