[2] One of the finest examples of Palladian design built in timber, the manor house is slightly modified by neo-classical elements.

The interior of the house displays a height and grandeur rare in the region, and is furnished with a unique collection of period furniture, art and artifacts.

[3][4] By the 1960s, the building had survived almost a century of neglect and the citizens of Bertie County, aided by other North Carolinians and a far-flung net of support, formed the Historic Hope Foundation, Inc. (a registered non-profit organization) to purchase and rescue the house.

[5] The site on which the Hope Mansion is constructed was originally occupied by linguistic relatives of the Algonkian, the Sioux and the Iroquois.

A Charter to the Carolinas was granted by Charles II of England to eight Lords Proprietor in 1663 in gratitude for their support in helping him recover his throne after the execution of his father.

In the 1720s the Lords Proprietor granted 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of land at the western end of the Albemarle Sound, near the Cashie River, to the Hobson family.

Francis Hobson and his wife Elizabeth (of Hope Parrish in Derbyshire, England) migrated to the new world to occupy the land.

The remnants of their house and the probable location of the quarters of their enslaved servants and workers have been explored by expert archeologists.

Despite his strong English heritage, he was raised as an American patriot, his father participating in early Provincial Congresses to support the revolutionary movement.

David had graduated first in his class at Princeton, was widely read, and a correspondent of many of the new American intelligentsia (later with Thomas Jefferson).

The Palladian style was admired by Whigs[8] and by American patriots, particularly in the South, who thought of themselves as inheritors of Roman ideas and ideals.

When rehabilitation of the structure was first considered in the 1960s and the state approached for aid by local citizens the executive director of the North Carolina Department of Archives and History said, "Hope is hopeless.