Built in 1837 on a site overlooking Seneca Lake, it is one of the nation's finest examples of monumental residential Greek Revival architecture.

The mansion is a large 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, whose most prominent feature is its main facade, which resembles a Greek temple with six Ionic columns supporting a fully pedimented gable.

The interior exhibits fine Greek Revival woodwork, with a spiral staircase in the central hall, and an elaborate archway separating the two parlors.

[3] The property was first developed as a farm in 1802 by Robert Rose, who moved to the area from Virginia with a family group that included those they had enslaved.

Its architect is not known, but its stylistic details suggest that the builders were influenced by the published works of both Minard Lafever and Andrew Jackson Downing, both proponents of the Greek Revival.