The house next door, called the Evergreens, was built by the poet's father, Edward Dickinson, in 1856 as a wedding present for her brother Austin.

The Dickinson family had a long record of residency in the Connecticut River valley, dating back to the early days of English colonial settlement of the area.

In 1833, persistent money troubles forced Edward to sell the Homestead back to Leland and Nathan,[8] who in turn gave the entire property to General David Mack, Jr. Mack's family occupied the western half of the Homestead, while Edward and his family moved into the eastern half.

By 1855, fifteen years later, Edward had risen to prominence and wealth, and was able to purchase the entire Homestead and surrounding land for $6,000 after Mack's death.

That same year, Edward began construction of The Evergreens just west of the Homestead, presenting it as a wedding gift to his son Austin and new wife Susan.

A large barn stood directly behind the house to shelter the family's horses, cow, and chickens and provide rooms for the groundskeeper.

In the 1860s, Edward and Austin Dickinson planted a low hemlock hedge that spanned the street frontage of both houses.

In 1868 she wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a regular correspondent, that "I do not cross my Father's ground to any House or town" in response to his suggestion that she come to Boston so they might meet.

Martha Dickinson Bianchi, their only surviving child, continued to live in the house, and preserved it, without change, until her own death in 1943.

Her heirs – co-editor Alfred Leete Hampson, and later his widow, Mary Landis Hampson – continued to preserve the house as a "time capsule" of a prosperous nineteenth-century household in a New England town, recognizing the tremendous historical and literary significance of a site left completely intact.

These culminated in the merger of the two efforts in 2003, when the trust transferred ownership of The Evergreens to Amherst College, and the Emily Dickinson Museum was formally established to manage the recombined properties.

Subsequent changes to the house in the 1830s and 1840s introduced Greek revival architectural features as well as stylish white paint on the facades exposed to more public scrutiny.

[12] Designed by well-known Northampton architect William Fenno Pratt, the house is one of the earliest and best-preserved examples of Italianate domestic architecture in Amherst.

Situated on two high terraces, The Evergreens was surrounded by cultivated planting beds and looked out to the west over a neighbor's orchard.

Austin Dickinson applied the design principles of Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted to The Evergreens' landscape.