George Horton owned tanneries in Sheffield, Kane, and Ludlow (in McKean County). He often procured his hides from the stockyards in Chicago, and on one of his trips, there he admired a house by architect Alfred Smith (1841–1898), who was known for his Episcopal churches, apartment buildings, and residences. Smith supplied the design for this thirty-eight-room house, and possibly also for the summerhouse, carriage house, garage, and greenhouse built on the grounds. Although Horton died in 1893, his family kept the house until 1941; it was auctioned ten years later. Dominated by oversized half-timbered wall dormers, the house is highly picturesque. It has two towers, one with a conical roof at the northeast corner, and the other squat and set under the eaves of the northwest corner. The interior is fitted with oak trim and parquet floors. To power his domestic operation, Horton drilled a gas well on the property.
At the north and south corners on the east side of Church and S. Main streets, a pair of very large frame Stick Style houses completes the triumvirate of fine houses in Sheffield.