This house is, according to Bryant F. Tolles in Architecture in Salem, "Salem's most notable and innovative Adamesque Federal-style wooden residence and one of the gems of New England architecture" (146). The house, built in 1803-4, was designed by Samuel McIntire (1757-1811) at his "creative peak" (Tolles 146). Cook's son-in-law, Henry K. Oliver, lived in this house after 1859 and composed the hymn, "Federal Street" (Tolles 146).