John and Sarah Edwards leased property here around 1761 to establish their farm, and their oldest son, Matthew, built the circa 1785 homestead on a small parcel of the thousand acres the family purchased after the American Revolution. Generations of the Edwards family lived in the house through the mid-1940s, when they decided to give it to the Sayville Historical Society, which they had helped organize. The homestead began as a small Cape Cod and was enlarged over time to meet the family's needs. In the 1830s, Matthew's son James and his wife Deborah expanded it, adding a larger newer room with another window and more ornate woodwork. Many of the furnishings came from family donations, and family stories about their ancestors were also preserved. James and Deborah's great-granddaughter Clarissa included those stories in a book she wrote in the 1930s, and a photo shows her driving a pony cart with her cousin Sarah.