The large house takes a locally unusual form, with its gable end toward the street and an inset porch along one side. Its late Georgian style interior finish shares many elements with Tryon Palace, the John Wright Stanly House, and the plantation house Bellair. It is one of several North Carolina houses for which a new construction date has been indicated by dendrochronology study. Long thought to have been built about 1770, the house has principal timbers evidently cut after the growing season of 1785. (Notably, Coor had taken an apprentice carpenter in 1784.) Coor bought the property in 1767 and evidently owned it until his death. The house was later the home of the distinguished New Bern jurist William Gaston. Next to it stood the Coor-Cook House, which was begun by Coor and left unfinished at his death; it has been moved to another site (see Sandbeck, New Bern).