The house was built in the Chestnut Gap settlement in the mountains of northern Georgia, near the Tennessee border, for Colonel Michael McKinney and Hepsy Adaline McClure McKinney.

[1] The McKinneys would go on to found the city of Blue Ridge on the site of Chestnut Gap.

[1] Colonel McKinney was a pioneer railroad contractor and lumber businessman who served as an officer in the Georgia Militia during the American Civil War.

The McKinney family owned a mill nearby the house.

The home later served as a boarding house and hotel.