It is the oldest house in Washington (although it was not originally built there) and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1969.

[2] The house was built in Danvers, Massachusetts, in 1754 as a grand summer home for Robert "King" Hooper, a leading shipowner and merchant in Marblehead, Massachusetts, who sided with the Tories before the Revolutionary War and lent the house for four months to Thomas Gage, the reviled British governor.

After passing through several other owners, including one who used it as a boardinghouse, the house was purchased in 1860 by Francis Peabody Jr., who restored and added to it.

Under the direction of the key architect at Colonial Williamsburg, it was slowly reassembled from 1935 to 1938 on a concrete foundation, supported by steel beams.

[needs update] The house measures 8,250 square feet (766 m2), with 11 fireplaces, and has nearly 12-foot (3.7 m) ceilings, interior columns, stenciled floors, and wallpaper designed in Paris in the early 1800s.