Built in 1840 to a design by Joseph Collins Wells, it is one of the oldest-known and best-documented examples of architect-designed Gothic Revival architecture.

[2][3][4] It was designed and built for Jonathan Sturges (1802–74), a New York City businessman and patron of the arts, in whose family the property remains.

[3] The main block of the house, built in 1840, is the first known commission of the British-born architect Joseph C. Wells, whose best-known commissions are the later First Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, and the Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, Connecticut (the latter is also a National Historic Landmark Gothic Revival summer house).

The Wells commission is extremely well-documented by the Sturges family, and includes original color drawings.

Notable innovations in the house's design include a combined water closet and bathing room, a development that did not see wider acceptance until the 1850s.