The right front of this house dates from before 1850 but the house, as it now stands, was built by DiLorma Imbrie, prominent Beaver attorney, about 1861.
Mr. Imbrie, who served 12 years in the Pennsylvania House and in the Senate; as editor for one year of the Beaver Argus, as Chief Clerk of the Commonwealth's Constitutional Convention in 1873, purchased the property from Matthew S. Quay when the latter was commissioned a Lt. Col. in the Union Army in 1861. Colonel Quay went on to the United States Senate and the leadership of the Republican Party.
The original patent was granted to John McDowell by Governor Thomas Mifflin in 1794.
High-ceilinged pleasant rooms and a large center hall with graceful sweeping staircase have made this gracious home one of the finest examples of Civil War era homes in the state because of the painstaking and tasteful restoration by its present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Halstead McCabe.