The site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is made up of several 19th century stone and timber cabins built by Cornish immigrants who came to Mineral Point to mine lead and zinc.

[2] Programs at the site also interpret the groundbreaking preservation work by Robert Neal and Edgar Hellum, begun during the Great Depression.

[3] During the 1830s and 1840s, the area that today comprises southwest Wisconsin and northwest Illinois was rapidly populated as miners came from across the United States and Europe to work the region's abundant lead deposits.

Several mining boomtowns sprang up in the region, including Galena, Illinois; Platteville, Wisconsin; and Mineral Point, the location of Pendarvis.

The Pendarvis House Restaurant received wide acclaim, and helped finance Neal and Hellum's restoration of even more historic Cornish homes in Mineral Point.

The historic buildings are shown to the visiting public seasonally as a museum preserving the history of the region's mining industry and the lives of the miners who first developed the site.