The house's heart pine woodwork and handmade bricks highlight the attention to detail of its wealthy owner and the Scottish architects and builders he employed.

Solid Doric style columns from a castle in Scotland support the front porches, and the balcony railing is carved to resemble English lace.

He excelled as a trader in the Native American communities and a landowner, and founded the town of Aberdeen in Monroe County, Mississippi.

A planter, James Gordon served as an officer in the Confederate Army under Jeb Stuart and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Lochinvar remained in the Gordon family until 1900, when J. D. Fontaine, an attorney in Pontotoc, Mississippi, bought it to use as a tenant house.