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