Hoyt East was built for May Emma Hoyt, eldest of the three children of Lewis Stiles Hoyt, a local coal, oil, and railroad magnate. Upon the death of their father in 1907, each child received approximately $100 million. May Emma Hoyt, who was single and forty-two years old, spent approximately a quarter of her inheritance on her twenty-two-room mansion. She hired Charles F. Owsley of Youngstown initially, but ultimately had Frank Foulk of New Castle design a Colonial Revival, two-and-one-half-story house of light-colored brick with green clay roof tiles and copper gutters and trim. A formal porte-cochere angles from the L-shaped building, and shelters the rear entrance. The interior includes walnut and golden oak paneling carved with classical designs, a hand-carved main stairway, and secret closets incorporated into the walls of the dining room to hold her furs and the keys to all the rooms. A large carriage house, adjacent to the main house, has an apartment and full basement.

Alexander Crawford Hoyt and his wife constructed Hoyt West at approximately the same time, and named their house “Rosewall.” Also designed by Foulk, Hoyt West was constructed of a deep red-brown brick and used dark-stained walnut on the interior. Stylistically, the houses are very similar, and their site plans are nearly identical, with the same angled porte-cochere and adjacent carriage house. The houses were given to Lawrence County in 1965, and became the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts in 1968. Hoyt East and West are joined by a terraced breezeway consisting of a series of glass pavilions spanning the grassy incline between them, designed by the W. G. Eckles Company Architects in 1996.