Built in 1889 to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, it is a prominent local example of residential Richardsonian Romanesque architecture.

The front facade is divided into three basic sections, the most prominent a projecting polygonal bay topped by a pyramidal roof.

[3] The house was built in 1889 to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow for lawyer and railroad executive Edwin Hale Abbot (1834–1927).

It remained in the Abbot family until 1937, and has since then been home to the institution now called the Longy School of Music of Bard College.

In the 1960s a modern addition was made to the north, designed by Huygens and Tappe; it houses the Pickman Concert Hall.