[3] Within this landmarked area are three architecturally significant, pre-Civil War mansions and their grounds;[4] a 10,000-year-old Indigenous peoples site and viewshed; a private cemetery, and a nature preserve.

This district, which also has immense archaeological significance and importance to Native American, European-American and African-American heritage,[5] was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

The site was added to the Westchester County African American Heritage Trail in 2004 by then County Executive Andrew Spano because of its association with John Jay and his lasting legacy to abolish slavery through law in his home state beginning in 1777, along with the efforts of his descendants: "With respect to the abolition of slavery in New York, no New Yorker was as persistent, politically skilled, and, ultimately, as legally effective as John Jay.

"[9] His legacy was complicated: while Jay was founder and president of the Manumission Society of New York, and signed legislation as governor to abolish slavery in 1799, he held enslaved African Americans as workers here until 1810.

This house was designated as a member site of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area in January 2009 because of 1) the architectural and historical significance of its buildings; 2) as significant parkland it illustrates the role of the Hudson River Valley in the modern environmental movement; 3) the site is associated with great Americans and social issues, particularly the examination of the abolition of slavery; and 4) because of its once notable formal gardens and landscape.

The mansion was constructed according to specifications in a contract between Jay and a builder named Edwin Bishop, and details appear to have been drawn from architectural pattern books by Minard Lafever and Chester Hills.

It is a nature preserve with a diverse number of habitats - several ponds, an East Stream, West Creek, open meadow, woodland, salt marsh, and freshwater wetlands - that attract a variety of flora and fauna.