Constructed in 1892,[1] it was the home of two of Muskingum County's leading citizens in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it has been designated a historic site.

As he aged, Tannehill chose to move into Zanesville, where he built the present residence as a retirement home in his sixty-fifth year; there he remained until his death in 1909.

[3] In 1979, the James Boggs Tannehill House and a related outbuilding were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of dozens of Zanesville buildings to have been given this distinction,[1] it qualified for inclusion both because of its architecture and its place as the home of the prominent Tannehills.

[2] Perhaps its most important element is its place as an early example of the Colonial Revival movement: when Captain Tannehill ordered the house's construction, this style was yet very rare and unknown in general society.