John Carter, an early leader of the Watauga Association who arrived from Virginia around 1770, acquired this land in 1775; his son Landon Carter, a merchant and prominent political figure who later served in the government of the short-lived State of Franklin, is believed to have built the mansion in the 1780s. Rather than a fortified structure, the mansion functioned as an elegant private residence for one of the frontier's wealthiest and most politically influential families, reflecting fortunes built through land dealing and trade at a time when most neighboring dwellings were simple log cabins. Its refined interior, featuring hand-painted murals, floor-to-ceiling paneling, and finely carved woodwork, served to display the family's social standing and connections, and the home likely doubled as an informal meeting place for regional political and business affairs given the Carters' leadership roles in Watauga and Franklin governance. The Carter family occupied the residence continuously for roughly a century, until 1882. Architecturally, it combined a common Pennsylvania-style floor plan with more academic decorative details, distinguishing it from typical frontier housing and making it one of the oldest and most architecturally significant frame houses surviving in Tennessee. The state acquired the property in 1973, restored it, and now operates it as a museum unit of Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area, interpreting elite domestic life on the 18th-century Tennessee frontier.