It is significant as the longtime family home Stephen Tyng Mather (1867–1930), an industrialist and conservationist who championed the creation of the National Park Service in 1916 and served as its first director.

This unfinished space was converted into bedrooms and a bathroom at an unknown date before its ownership passed to Stephen Tyng Mather in 1906.

The interior of the main block retained its original character through these changes, but the old kitchen space was converted into a living room.

Mather also had a sunken garden built, along with a caretaker's cottage (replaced later by a guest house) and a carriage barn.

He became interested in the condition of the nation's parks and public lands in 1904, expressing his concern in a letter to his friend Franklin Lane, the United States Secretary of the Interior.