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Fairfax Arms is a mid eighteenth-century structure with a one-and a half story frame and is approximately 2,229 square feet. The original section of Fairfax Arms contains four rooms on the first floor, and three rooms on the second floor. There are 6 fireplaces and a stone cellar, all original to the house.
The Fairfax Arms tavern was constructed in the 1750s and is the only surviving original building from the town of Old Colchester. Its owner, Benjamin Grayson, bought the lot and converted the dwelling into an operating tavern. It is believed that one of the upper rooms would have served as a living space for the innkeeper’s family as well as female guests, while the men slept in a communal space. Fairfax Arms served Colchester and its residents until the early 1800s, when it became a residential dwelling.
Improvements were made to the house over the years with much of the integrity of the original 18th century building preserved. In the 1980s, the current owners added a large addition to the North-East side of the building that included, among other things, a modern kitchen. The building is listed under both the National Register of Historic Places and the Fairfax Inventory of Historic sites.
