The Hancock House was a gift from native son and prominent philanthropist Horace Moses (1862–1947). His success in the paper industry helped him contribute much to Ticonderoga, New York, including the Liberty Monument, Community Building, and the Hancock House. In building the Hancock House, he achieved one of his lifetime ambitions: to establish a museum with a library that would make Ticonderoga a focal point for public interest in the region’s nationally significant history. Moses wanted to reproduce a historic building of stone, a material more fire resistant than a wooden structure, so that it would protect valuable furnishings and records.

Max Westhoff, a revival-style architect and preservationist, prepared the designs for a Georgian mansion that replicated Thomas Hancock’s (uncle to John Hancock) famous Boston residence. John Hancock, second president of the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and later Governor of Massachusetts, was a wealthy merchant, and his Colonial home was built in 1737. John Sturgis made measured drawings before the original Beacon Street home was destroyed in 1863. The reproduction at Ticonderoga was dedicated on August 21, 1926, with around 3,000 people attending. Today, the Ticonderoga Historical Society manages this elegant structure as a regional museum and reference library, where there are exhibits on all four floors of the house.