By 1896, French was already a successful and world-renowned artist who could afford the luxury of a summer home. (For more information on French's career, please see the Barn Gallery virtual exhibit.)

His 105 foot tall statue The Republic, the largest statue ever made in the United States, had been one of the major highlights of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At the fair, French met Henry Bacon (1866-1924), a young architect in the venerable Boston firm of McKim, Meade and White.

French, Bacon, and other American artists who had studied in Italy and Paris often drew upon Europe's classical heritage as well as the popular Beaux-Arts movement of the time. Completed in 1901, the Chesterwood residence is an ideal example of the American Renaissance because it incorporates several architectural styles. The result is a hybrid, a modern house with a combination of both the English Georgian and American Colonial Revival styles. While on the exterior it has generalized Colonial Revival details, the house's siting on a ridge - with its splendid views and terrace - is more likely drawn from Italian design sources. French owned a copy of Charles Adams Platt's book Italian Gardens (1893). Nearly all contemporary architectural work by Platt (1861-1933) featured the large rectangular plan, hipped roof and slightly extended eaves common to early American houses as well as Italian villa estates. The design must have been deeply appealing to French because it combined the form of his grandfather's beloved Colonial house in Chester, New Hampshire, with nostalgic references to the architecture of his Italian travels.

The northern carriage entrance is the main entrance to the residence. On the left, a carriage block juts out of the marble steps of the porch, allowing women to step directly from a carriage (or automobile) onto the porch. On either side of the door are two large white marble urns - gifts from Henry Bacon and the Piccirilli Brothers, the marble cutting firm which French constantly employed after 1900.

The full breadth of the south side of the house has a walled and graveled terrace facing Monument Mountain. A towering Norway spruce tree, a gift of friendship from the Warner family, grows near the southwest corner of the residence. French originally planted it to the north of the old farmhouse. Later, when the new residence was built further back, the tree remained and flourished.

Like the Studio, the three-story and largely symmetrical residence is covered with gray stucco, studded with marble and coal chips for texture, and has a wood-shingled hip roof. Overall, the estimate for constructing the residence - "Too much!" wrote French - was $8,000.