This house was part of the Harriet Terry subdivision of land that composed numerous lots purchased in the middle of the 19th Century. It was transferred to George W. Eastman who sold it to Mary McGovern Lynch, the wife of Peter Lynch in 1880. She held the parcel as vacant land until 1895, and then transferred the land to her son, Peter for $550.00. He was only 23 at the time and held the land for speculation until circa 1907, when he finally built the current house.

Peter Lynch was initially employed as a foreman by John F. Remsen in the road construction business, On the death of his father-in-law, he took over the management of the Nassau House, a hotel located on School Street between Willow and Bryant. In 1901, the family lived on East Broadway in a two family home. It is here that his one child, Peter Elmer Lynch was born.

The property remained vacant until 1902 as shown on the Sanborn Insurance map. It was not shown on the Belcher Hyde map 1906 but appears on the 1908 Sanborn map. It was probably built in 1907 and initially rented to the Firth family. It was only after the fire and destruction of the Nassau Hotel, that the family decided to move into the residence. " I do not remember too much of my early boyhood except that being an only child and living in a hotel was a lonely time" (P.E.Lynch's recollections on file at the Roslyn Library, Bryant Room Clipping File). It was not until the Hotel burned (circa 1912), that the family occupied the Bryant Avenue home. But first the family lived in a house next to Pickard's drugstore, until their tenants vacated the Bryant Avenue house.