Originally designed and built in 1892 for Civil War veteran and entrepreneur Spencer E. Davis, it was among the first homes in the Kenwood neighborhood. It may also have been the most expensive yet built on the street; the estimated cost of construction was $15,000. Davis moved west from New York after the war and began producing farm implements in Wisconsin. In 1891, he moved his Monitor Manufacturing Company to St. Louis Park, where it became one of the growing manufacturing city’s chief enterprises.

It was designed by Edward S. Stebbins, a prominent local architect. Stebbins was the official architect of the Minneapolis Board of Education for more than 10 years, designing many of the city's educational facilities. Stebbins also co-created the plans for the Nicollet County Court House, St. Peter, Minnesota (1880-1881); the Hutchinson, Minnesota, Public Library (1904); Gethsemane Episcopal Church, Minneapolis (1883). The home is a classic Queen Anne Victorian, featuring an iconic tower with stained-glass windows and a large front porch (added later in 1923).

The house is more widely known for its role in American television history on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. The exterior was used as the fictional address that Mary moved to when she arrived in Minneapolis, and the opening credits of the series show her leaving the home to head to work. At the time of filming (1970–1977), the area behind the iconic windows was an unfinished attic and the show was shot on a sound stage. The owner of the home at the time was unhappy with the tourist attention, and hung “Impeach Nixon” banners in the iconic window to dissuade any additional footage being recorded of the home. Producers created a scale model of the home for future exterior images.