The house was commissioned by a local builder, Evan Mathew Richards, as a private residence for himself and his family.

[1] The house was designed in the Gothic Revival style, built in rubble masonry and was completed in 1863.

[2] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of six bays facing south towards Ffynone Road.

[9] Following Richards' death in 1880, the house was acquired by James Jones who let the building out as the judges' lodgings.

[10][11][12] Two cannons, which had been cast at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich in 1804 and operated by the Sea Fencibles in defence of Swansea Harbour during the Napoleonic Wars, were placed on the terrace in front of the building.