Harsen House belonged to the family of Jacob Harsen, a gunsmith and fur trader who arrived here about 1778 and was the first white settler on the island. On this site he built a log home that was destroyed by a gunpowder explosion. The present structure, erected around 1800 and later enlarged and altered, housed his descendants until the 1940s. The Harsen family once owned all of the island that bears their name.