When Ebenezer Dexter built this country retreat in 1800, it stood at the eastern edge of settlement in Providence, Rhode Island. Several of the citys wealthy residents maintained country seats on the then rural outskirts of the city, but Rose Farm is the only remaining gentlemans farmhouse from the period in this part of the city, surviving over two centuries of development pressure and economic recessions. The house stands out amongst a neighborhood of mid-to-late 19th century residences, for its refined form and simple symmetry. Rose Farm is a wood-frame dwelling with brick end walls and exceptionally tall chimneys at the hipped roof, which once had two levels of a decorative balustrade. Ebenezer Knight Dexter (1773-1824), was a businessman and philanthropist, who left the bulk of this farmland to establish a home for the poor, Dexter Asylum, on land to the north. John Stimson bought the farmhouse and surrounding land in 1837 and the property directly surrounding the farmhouse was later subdivided with large residential lots, with the neighbrohood filling-in by the late 19th century.