The original Needwood land patent of 1000 acres was granted to John Cooke in 1758 and later became part of a prosperous farm established on this site by his granddaughter Harriet Cooke Robertson and her husband William. Their son, William George Robertson, named the farm Sunnyside and built the existing brick structure shortly before his untimely death from lighting at the outbreak of the Civil War. His son William George joined Colonel John S. Mosby's Confederate rangers, and a skirmish involving Mosby's men occurred near the house in 1864. The George Washington Columbus Beall family owned the property from 1881 to 1948, and Needwood became part of Rock Creek Regional Park in 1962.