Englishman Thomas Bishop came to Athens from Massachusetts in 1835 and opened a grocery store. After acquiring the building site from the Trustees of the University of Georgia, he constructed the house in 1837. Bishop and his heirs retained ownership of the house for more than a century until the University bought it in 1942. Adjacent to Old North Campus and currently occupied by the Department of Classics, the Bishop House was individually nominated to the National Register because it was non-contiguous, separated from Old North Campus by Jackson Street.

The Bishop House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (March 16, 1976).