The house is a three and one-half story frame building featuring Dutch Colonial architecture.[5] While Stephen Jackson (1744–1812) may have built it, the house is attributed to his son, Joseph Jackson (1774–1854), a prominent industrialist in Rockaway from 1812 to 1854. He was Postmaster, Morris County Judge and Justice of Peace and a member of the New Jersey Assembly.[4] Dr. George H. Foster purchased the house in 1885. The house was willed to the borough in 1939 for use as a library and museum.[6]