During the American Revolutionary War, it was the site of negotiations for British General Charles Cornwallis's surrender at the Siege of Yorktown.

The house was erected around 1725 on a 500-acre parcel of land called Temple Farm which also included a dam and grist mill.

[3] The land was originally granted to the Crown Governor of Virginia, John Harvey in the 1630s and was known as the York Plantation at this time.

General Cornwallis requested a cease fire on October 17, 1781, and selected the house as the site for surrender negotiations, likely due to its neutral and convenient location.

[4] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service.