Richard Jackson was a woodworker, farmer, and mariner, and built the oldest portion of this house on his family's 25-acre (10 ha) plot, located on an inlet off the Piscataqua River, north of Portsmouth's central business district.

Jackson's house resembles English post-medieval prototypes, but is notably American in its extravagant use of wood.

The house as first built consisted of a two-story structure with two rooms on each floor, flanking a massive central chimney.

Not long afterward, a lean-to section was added to the rear (north side) of the house, which slopes nearly to the ground.

[3] The founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA, now Historic New England), William Sumner Appleton, acquired the house for SPNEA in 1924 from a member of the seventh generation of Jacksons to live there.