Restored as a memorial to the town founder, Revolutionary War General Adam Stephen, the limestone house was constructed on land along the Tuscarora Creek purchased by Stephen in 1770. He became the first sheriff of Berkeley County when it was created in 1772 and started businesses along the Tuscarora Creek including two mills, a distillery, and a gun factory. Shortly after that, in a bid to have
the county seat located near his new residence and businesses, Adam Stephen laid out a town plat and sold lots on his land to start the town of Martinsburg, Virginia, which was chartered by the Virginia Assembly in 1778. After Stephen's death here in 1791, the house was sold by his heirs, and a number of families owned and resided in it before it was deeded by the last private owner, William Evers, to the City of Martinsburg, West Virginia, in 1959. At that time, the General Adam Stephen Memorial Association was formed with the purpose of restoring the house and acquiring suitable furnishings which would reflect the early period of the house. A lot of work done on the house in the 1960s would have been impossible without the support of the local community and civic and patriotic groups. In 1970, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it was furnished and opened for tours as a historic house museum.
