[1] As built, the house was sheathed in wood clapboards, consisted of 2.5 stories with 5 × 2-bay windows, and was capped by a slate-shingled, gambrel roof.

[2] Samuel Barnard prospered as a merchant in Salem and was a wealthy individual when the "Ropes mansion" was built for him.

[2] Barnard would up outliving 3 of his 4 wives when he died in 1762, and the house eventually fell out of the family when it was sold by his nephew to Judge Nathaniel Ropes in 1768.

[1] Major changes to the Ropes Mansion occurred in 1894 when an ell was added and the residence was moved back from Essex Street.

[1][2] Changes also included modernization of the house through electricity and plumbing, interior modifications made in the Colonial Revival style, and the exterior white wooden fence which now occupies the front yard.

In their will they bequeathed the house to the "Essex Institute" for "the purpose of establishing a free school of botany", and as a memorial to their family.

The Ropes Mansion was featured in the 1993 Disney film Hocus Pocus where one of the main characters named Allison lives.