Located on a 230-acre farm in southwestern King William County, Bear Garden is a highly intact late-18th-century farm dwelling that evolved over three historic building campaigns through the turn of the 20th century. The original house, a one-room, side-passage plan with integral shed room on the east end, was likely constructed between 1796 and 1800, when its first owner, John Temple (1768–1814), married Alice Taylor and was deeded 341 acres by her father, Richard Squire Taylor. By around 1850-51, subsequent owner John P. Stevens had built a one-room addition to the other side of the passage, creating the current single-pile, central-passage plan. Sometime between 1896 and 1901, owner Lewis W. Moren constructed a one-story, T-shaped ell addition on the rear of the house. A mid-19th century frame smokehouse also survives on the Bear Garden property.