Built in the early 1900s for Elmer Darling, a locally-born New York hotelier, it was one of Vermont's largest such estates, featuring Burklyn Hall, one of its most opulent Colonial Revival houses, as well as numerous 19th-century farm properties.

He began purchasing properties on Darling Hill (then known as Bemis) in 1883, and had by the early 20th century amassed more than 2,000 acres of farmland encompassing an entire ridge north of Lyndon and west of East Burke.

He had all of the older farm buildings restored, and lined Darling Hill Road with a canopy of trees that is still largely in place.

[2] Burklyn Hall is located at the highest point of the Darling Hill ridge, which extends north–south in northeastern Lyndon and southern Burke.

The main entrance faces north, under a massive two-story Greek temple facade, and a porte-cochère on the west side is joined to an outbuilding housing a lavishly decorated billiard room.