The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its association with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943), who lived here in the 1910s.

The building's interior includes finishes from all periods of its occupation, and its exterior has also been added to and altered several times.

[3] The house was built in 1827–29, after the federal government decided to move the Augusta Arsenal to this location.

Stephen Benét lived here until 1915, and it is where he began his writing career, as well as being the only major surviving structure known to be associated with his life.

Benét is best known for the 1928 poem John Brown's Body, for which he was awarded the 1929 Pulitzer Prize, and the class 1937 short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster".