A structure was built on the site before 1759 by William Bertand, who died that year and whose father John Betrand had emigrated to Virginia as a Huguenot refugee and patented the land in 1692.

Members of the Griffin family then sold it circa 1786 to Rawleigh William Downman, who remodeled the parlor around 1790 and probably added two one-story dependencies on either side of the main house.

Part of this (completed by 1922) involved removing the original interior woodwork, whose quality was recognized and installed in the Winterthur Museum.

The Colonial style dwelling has a hipped roof pierced by two tall interior end chimneys, and surrounded at its base by the original modillion cornice.

This article about a property in Lancaster County, Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.