The architect is unknown but it exemplifies contemporary trends in home design popularized by the writings and pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing of nearby Newburgh, as articulated in the Picturesque mode.

[2] The house sits on a slightly sloping 2.1 acres (8,500 m2) lot between Route 211 and Main Street, on the west side of Otisville near where the highway crests a low area of the Shawangunk Ridge.

[1] A veranda on brick piers matches the Gothic trim on the gables, with clustered octagonal-capitalled columns and open-work tracery at the soffitt.

The floors in all rooms save the den are sawn-oak parquet, and the ten-foot (3 m) ceilings have cornices, some with detail work in the plaster.

Other contributing structures on the site include an old gas pump near the barn, a cut-granite hitching post and a remnant of the early foundation.

[1] Algernon Dodge, keeper of the local general store, bought the property from its original owners, the Loomis family, in 1851.

He was an active local businessman, owner of 13 sawmills across nearby Sullivan County and a director of the Otisville & Wurtsboro Turnpike Company, operators of the road that has since become Route 211.

He married one of the Loomis daughters, and lived in the house from the time of its completion to his death in 1881, shortly after some renovations and expansions that likely included the addition of the rear wing.

He retained ownership of the house until selling it in 1902 to a William E. Morse, who in turn sold it roughly four years later to a subsidiary of the Erie Railroad for $5, so it could build the mile-long (1.6 km) tunnel still in use under the property.