The main block of the brick house, built about 1830, is an important early work of a regional master builder, and it is attached to an older wood-frame ell.

[1] The Kemp-Shepard House stands in a rural area of eastern Georgia, on the north side of Highbridge Road just east of its crossing over an inlet of Arrowhead Mountain Lake.

It stands on about 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land, a remnant of a once-larger farm property, much of which was inundated when the lake was formed in 1937.

The rear wing exhibits late 18th century construction techniques in its framing, and its original vertical batten siding has been covered by wooden clapboards.

The house remained in the hands of Kemp descendants (later named Shepard) into the late 20th century, and did not receive modern amenities such as plumbing and electricity until the 1980s.