The Hunter House Victorian Museum was built in 1894 as the family home for Mr. James Wilson Hunter and his wife Lizzie Ayer Barnes Hunter. Their three children continued to live their adult lives in their family home. With no heirs, Eloise as the last surviving member of the family, created the Hunter Foundation. According to her will, she required the foundation to operate her "residence at 240 Freemason Street... with the furniture, decorations, paintings and curios... as a museum and example of American Victorian Architecture."