The 6,000-square-foot house was built in 1858-1859 by George Mullen for John Howison, who was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1809.

He and his wife, Helen Rose Moore, purchased the house at 1300 Charles Street, Fredericksburg, in 1828.

Robert Reid Howison had written and published a major history of Virginia in 1846 and renamed the house "Braehead."

The house has a double-pile (two rooms between the front and rear walls), sidepassage plan with hipped roofed entrance porticos on the east and west façades.

[7] Also on the property are two sites contributing to its historical significance: the ruins of a worked stone icehouse and the chimney base of an antebellum house.