[2] Family patriarch Johannes Lott, a member of the New York Colonial Assembly, purchased land from Coert Van Voorhees in the rural area of Flatlands in 1719 to use for farming.

When Hendrick I. Lott married Mary Brownjohn in 1792, he found his grandfather's house was too small, too old, and too outmoded for an established member of a prominent family.

Hendrick built a larger, grander house, combining Dutch architecture with that of the English, making it into a distinctly American building.

Although Hendrick added Federal-style dormer windows, the gambrel roof with graceful spring eaves is typical of the Dutch colonial architectural style.

Like most large farmers in southern Kings County, the Lotts relied heavily on the labor of slaves to grow the crops that they sold in the markets of Brooklyn and Manhattan.

[2] By 1825 the 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm, on which the Lotts raised cabbage, potatoes, vegetables, and wheat, included outbuildings, barns, and a separate stone kitchen.

The kitchen foundation, located between the home and the present East 36th Street, was excavated in 1998 by the Brooklyn College Archaeological Research Center.

Below the floors of those rooms, they found corncobs in star or cross shapes and other spiritual objects that showed mutual religious practices between slaves who worked there and Africans in West Africa.

During the restoration, the house was occasionally opened to the public; visitors were encouraged to check out the "closet that is believed to have been a temporary haven for slaves escaping along the Underground Railroad".