The Gothic Revival cottage was built in 1845 to a design by noted New York City architect Alexander Jackson Davis.

It is one a very few surviving Gothic cottage designs by Davis, exhibiting features not found in the others that do.

[2] The cottage is roughly L-shaped, with a main block that has a hip roof meeting a slightly taller section with a steeply-pitched gable end.

The projecting taller section frames the main entrance, and has elaborate hand-carved vergeboard decoration.

On either side of this projecting section are a pair of gabled dormers with Gothic windows; these are a later addition by the Rotches to improve the lighting of upstairs bedrooms.