The visible portion of the house is the classically inspired front addition built for Jedediah Hotchkiss, cartographer and aide to Stonewall Jackson. Hotchkiss contributed to the design carried out by the Boston firm. The three-story addition is composed of a central section flanked on one side by a polygonal bay with an open porch on its third story and, on the other side, by a two-story porch with Chinese-derived railings. In the post–Civil War period, Hotchkiss helped launch a movement to develop the Valley's mineral resources that led to the wild speculation and subsequent bust of the 1890s.