Unique among Federal style buildings, carved wooden swags in the shape of drapery, complete with tassels and bowknots, grace the top of the second-story balcony.

[2] Some alterations during the relocation and reconstruction include the rear entrance and stairway, required by contemporary fire code, were added in 1958, and a former dirt-floored room in the basement was turned into a visitors' bathroom.

[3] Adjacent to the house is a permanent sculpture garden with ten bronze busts of significant Hudson River School artists.

When Sir William Erskine, Quartermaster General, returned to England in 1779 to face an audit and investigation for war profiteering, he asked Dyckman to accompany him.

But within a year he faced financial difficulties, the halt of Erskine's annuity by his heirs after his death and his own lavish tastes and generous gifts to less fortunate family members contributing to reduce his circumstances.

[1] Wealthier but injured and ailing, Dyckman returned to the United States in 1803 and began the construction process for the house he had long planned.

In 1955 an organization called Friends of Boscobel saved it from a contractor who had bid $35 to knock it down after the Veterans' Administration had built a hospital on the site.

They arranged for it to be moved to a similar location upriver, near Cold Spring, a year later,[2] using photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey to guide the reconstruction.

[2] Richard K. Webel designed grounds for the new site that bore little resemblance to its original surroundings, favoring the "country house" style popular in the early 20th century.