Solitude House began as a classic Germanic-style stone home in 1712 on a 10,000-acre tract that later became part of the Union Iron Works. Its adjacent stone annex, slaves' quarters, and vegetable cave are among the original structures that still survive. The house predates both the Union Iron Works and the establishment of High Bridge, and its first recorded resident was Col. John Hackett, superintendent of the nearby iron works founded there in 1742 by William Allen and Joseph Turner. Solitude House became the primary residence of the iron works manager, and with Robert Taylor's arrival from Ireland in 1755, the first of five generations of Taylors came to live there. Taylor began as a bookkeeper, became manager after Hackett's death, and the Taylor family managed and operated the adjacent ironworks while residing at Solitude from Robert Taylor in 1742 through Knox Taylor in 1914. The early Taylors were patriots during the Revolutionary War. As the iron works prospered, the house was substantially remodeled and expanded, doubling in size in 1775 and expanding again in the 1850s into an early Victorian appearance. For more than 200 years, Solitude was the centerpiece of the Taylor Iron and Steel Company. Among its notable visitors and occupants were George and Martha Washington, General Lafayette, Col. Charles Stewart, Aaron Burr, and the last royal governor John Penn and Chief Justice Benjamin Chew, who were imprisoned there for 7 months during the Revolutionary War. Civil War Brigadier General George W. Taylor was born at Solitude House and worked in the iron company. After nearly being lost to demolition, Solitude came into the possession of the Borough of High Bridge in early 2000, and in 2002 the Union Forge Heritage Association opened Solitude House Museum. Solitude House and its associated structures are recognized at the state and national levels as historic structures.