The John Green House is a testament to early southern Irish settlement in Harlem and the Leeds County region, as well as to the mid-19th century agricultural activity which flourished in the area. The John Green House is a particularly fine example of the Georgian style Ontario Cottage, likely drawing upon memories of similar homes in Ireland.

Of particular note is the front Palladian window, as well as the gable finished with returned eaves.

This one-and-a-half storey sandstone house built in the Ontario Cottage style, is rectangular in shape. At the rear of the building is an attached stone summer kitchen/woodshed/carriage house. The even course stonework on the front of the house gives way to a more random arrangement of stone at the rear. The windows appear to be original with a double sash six-over-six pane design, with shutters on those of the main house. The wide doorway in the front facade includes a multi-paned transom and side lights. Stone pillars with gothic style markings are located at the entrance to the property, as is a low stone fence.

John Green arrived in Canada with his parents as part of the immigration from southern Ireland following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The house, completed in the early 1860s, features design elements associated with the country Georgian style. It is speculated that this grand home may have drawn upon elements of homes the Green family would have known in County Wexford.

In 1838, John Green and his wife, Eleanor Gainford, acquired 400 acres of farmland in Harlem, on which he eventually oversaw the construction of this building which sits atop a small hill overlooking a valley with good farmland. John had become a substantial farmer in the intervening years.

According to the 1851 and 1861 census, John Green’s farm had large outputs of butter, beef, and pork. This is the second home for the family as prior census info indicates that they lived in a one-and-a-half storey frame home, the precursor to this fine residence.