The original frame house was built by the Rutherford family about 1760. General Philemon Dickinson (1739-1809) bought it in July 1776, as a rural retreat along the Delaware River, and named it "The Hermitage." He lived here with his wife Mary Cadwalader and children, Mary and Samuel.[3] The frame house was torn down about 1905, but a much larger stone-and-stucco addition built in 1784 still stands. The addition was extensively remodeled in the Italianate style in the mid-19th century.[4]
In the early-20th century, the street grid was expanded around the house (note that the building sits at an angle to Colonial Avenue). The house has been converted into apartments.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1974, for its significance in military history.[4] Trenton Historical Society lists it as one of the top ten endangered buildings in the city.[7]
^Tobias Lear to George Washington, May 15 & 22, 1791, The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, Dorothy Twohig, ed. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999), pp. 189, 202, 204n.