Built in the 19th century, it was from 1894 to 1913 the residence of James H. Dillard (1856–1940), a leading white educator of African-Americans across the American South during a period of difficult race relations.

It is a roughly cruciform single-story wood-frame structure, with a main hip-roofed central section, from which other elements project to the front and rear.

The house's construction date is not known, but it has not had substantial alterations since the turn of the 20th century, the period of Dillard's ownership.

[3] James H. Dillard was a Virginia native who was educated as a lawyer, but chose to work as a teacher and school administrator.

By 1905, he was serving as a trustee of a number of African-American colleges, and in 1908 took over leadership of the Negro Rural School Fund.