Originally built for Marine M. Watkins, this one-story, center-hall-plan house was purchased in 1871 by Dr. J.C. McElroy, a physician and state representative. In 1891, Mrs. Bettie Russell Hoye, the widow of M.J.L. Hoye, a local merchant who founded M.J.L. Hoye and Company, bought the property. The house belonged to the Hoye family until 1972, when it was acquired by the First Baptist Church of Newton. In 2005, the Newton Historical Cultural Commission purchased the house and moved it to this location.