Built about 1682 and later enlarged and restyled, it was at the time of its construction the grandest house in what is now the state of Maine.

[2] The house was built about 1682 for William Pepperrell (d. 1733), a fisherman who moved to the area in 1680 and married the daughter of John Bray, a local merchant and shipwright.

When King George's War broke out in 1744, Pepperrell was chosen to lead a colonial expedition to take the French Fortress Louisbourg on what is now Cape Breton Island.

For leading the capture of this strategic fortification, Pepperrell was awarded a baronetcy by King George II.

Pepperrell's large landholdings were lost by his grandson, who remained Loyal during the American Revolutionary War and fled to England, resulting in the confiscation of the estate by the state.