Rockwood was built in 1842 as a country villa for John Solomon Cartwright (1804 - 1845). Designed by George Browne, the architect that designed Kingston City Hall,
Rockwood was a stone structure covered in stucco and lined to suggest ashlar masonry.
After Cartwright's death, the property was acquired in 1856 as a site for a Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Further limestone buildings were constructed to form
the psychiatric hospital that once operated on this site.
