On this eight-acre farm lot James Corse built a house in the 1720s that would serve as a religious, social and political meeting place and an inn for the community of Greenfield, Massachusetts. During Corse’s lifetime, the fortified home was also a place of refuge during the French and Indian War (1754-1763).

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the town of Greenfield grew around the site and the inn served as central gathering place for its citizens. As the town flourished, the inn became a hotel serving the travelers and itinerant businessmen who were passing through the region. By the middle of the 19th century the hotel was known as “Mansion House.” It was added to and updated according to style and technology and businesses took up residence in its first floor.