138 North Champlain Street is a one-and-one-half-story, gable-front, wood frame structure on the west side of North Champlain Street between Peru and North Streets. A series of additions to the rear of the building was constructed between 1894 and 1978.1
Like its neighbor to the south at 134 North Champlain Street, this house was built between 1857 and 1865.2 It may have been built by James Madigan, an employee of W. H. Lane, carriage makers.3 Madigan retained ownership of the building sporadically between 1865 and 1886, when it was purchased by the P.J. Donlin family. Donlin, a clerk, sold the dwelling to Edmund G. Sumner, and employee of the Edlund Company (a manufacturer of kitchen goods).4 The Sumner family owned the property until 1974, but ownership changed frequently since that time.5