Rokeby served as a repository for U.S. Government documents during the British occupation and burning of Washington in 1814 during the War of 1812.

The main house is a two-story five-bay brick building standing on a low basement, with prominent end chimneys.

[3] Rokeby was built around 1765 by Charles Binns, Sr., the first clerk of the circuit court of Loudoun County on a 160-acre (65 ha) tract.

Although William Binns did not live there when British forces threatened the new national capital in 1814, the empty house was used to store U.S. government documents at the direction of then-Secretary of State James Monroe.

In 1830, Benjamin Shreve, Jr. purchased the house and remodeled, altering the earlier clipped gables to their present form and who changed the interior trim details.