The first European settlement in the Roslyn Harbor area occurred when a small group of English colonists arrived from Connecticut in 1643. The settlement, known as Hempstead Harbor (renamed Roslyn in 1844), was very small and existed mainly as the landing for the village of Hempstead, which was settled in 1644 by colonists from Stamford, Connecticut, under the leadership of Robert Fordham and John Carmen. The settlers purchased a ten-mile long strip of land (this would later become the town of Hempstead) from local Indian tribes and from the Dutch. The purchase of the land was authorized by a land grant from Lord Sterling. This English land grant was disputed by the Dutch, who claimed the area. After some negotiation and the settlers' agreement to pay a ten percent income tax to the Governor of New Amsterdam, the Dutch relinquished their claim to the area and allowed settlement. The patent gave the settlers an unusual position among the neighboring Dutch settlements in that they were allowed to choose their own governing officials and manage their own affairs without Dutch interference. Dutch rule of the area was short-lived as Long Island and the rest of the New Netherlands colony passed to English control in 1664.

In 1685, Nathaniel Pearsall, the five other original proprietors of the town of Hempstead patent, and the settlers were granted title to the land on which they dwelt. As a proprietor, Pearsall was entitled to claim a 150-acre grant of land within the township and it is thought that his property covered the northwest quarter of the present village of Roslyn Harbor, including much of the land along the northern portion of the shoreline of Hempstead Harbor. At this time Pearsall built a farmhouse and expanded his farm, and the remainder of the area of present-day Roslyn Harbor consisted of a few other large farms and woodlands. The only buildings in the area were those associated with the farmsteads.

When Nathaniel Pearsall died in 1703, he left his extensive farm to his son, Thomas. It is believed Thomas Pearsall built a farmhouse for his family on the property sometime after the mid-18th century. This house, now incorporated into the estate house Willowmere, (individual component) has been dated to c. 1770, on the basis of molded flat panels above a fireplace that relate to those in other local houses of the period, by Dr. Roger Gerry of the Roslyn Landmark Society. The house was built in place of, and incorporated part of, an earlier house on the site built by Nathaniel Pearsall. Thomas Pearsall and his descendants continued to operate the farm, and by the 1830s the family holdings had grown to 250 acres, more than a third of the present-day village of Roslyn Harbor. The property included all of the land along the shore of Hempstead Harbor to the northern boundary of the present village line as well as land on the east side of Glenwood Road.

The Pearsall farm remained in the family until 1839 when the land was subdivided into several parcels and sold at auction. Mr. and Mrs. William Cairns bought the Pearsall farmhouse and approximately 20 acres of land and transformed it into a country estate, which they named Clifton. In 1882 the estate passed to the Cairns' daughter, Mrs. Aaron Ward, wife of Admiral Ward, USN, who renamed it Willowmere. Additional renovations took place in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

Adapted from Historic and Architectural Resources of Roslyn Harbor-1999

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The home is currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Take a virtual tour as seen in 2020.