In December 1926, it became the first property John D. Rockefeller Jr. authorized W. A. R. Goodwin to purchase as part of the Colonial Williamsburg restoration campaign.

Possibly built on the site of a prior house that was constructed between 1680 and 1690, timbers in the surviving structure were dated as being felled in 1752 and brickwork indicates the entire building was completed simultaneously.

On her death, her grandson, Philip Ignatius Barziza, took up residence at the home and sought Thomas Jefferson's help in an unsuccessful attempt to claim it as an inheritance.

Briefly transferred to the College of William & Mary, it was returned to the Colonial Williamsburg project and restored in the early 1930s.

The home's restored appearance features a one-room-deep front portion that rises two stories and a single-story shed that spans the building's length on its rear, northern side.

Philip Ludwell III and his ancestors were among many English transatlantic business figures who spent extended periods in England while closely monitoring their interests in Virginia.

[note 2] Frances died the next year, and her inheritance was divided between the spouses of her sisters, Paradise and William Lee (husband of Hannah Ludwell).

[12] Correspondences from William Lee to Williamsburg politicians John Prentis (1785) and Benjamin Waller (1787) indicate that the house was rented out in 1785 and 1786.

She brought all of her portable belongings, including a piano forte, an ornamented carriage, and a mahogany table at which both Jefferson and Johnson had sat.

[note 4] In 1815, Lucy and Antonio's son Philip Ignatius Barziza came to the United States at age 18 to claim the inheritance, including the Ludwell–Paradise House.

While Jefferson was sympathetic to the claim and entertained Barziza at Monticello, in 1826 the Virginia Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Philip in favor of Hopkins and Hodgson.

The last, a boy named Decimus et Ultimus Barziza, was born in the house and later served in the Texas state legislature.

During a 19th-century renovation, Parks Slater displayed some of the house's exposed upstairs plastering that featured portions of Revolutionary War-era newspapers.

[1] In 1924, Bruton Parish Church rector W. A. R. Goodwin began lobbying John D. Rockefeller Jr. for financial support for the College of William & Mary at a Phi Beta Kappa alumni event in New York City.

[23] Later that month, Goodwin encountered real estate salesman Gardiner T. Brooks, representing the Ludwell–Paradise House's resident, Marie Louise Stewart.

[25] By January 19, 1927, the architectural firm Perry, Shaw and Hepburn had, at Rockefeller's behest, taken measurements of Bruton, the Ludwell–Paradise, and other historic Williamsburg buildings.

On June 2, 1927, Goodwin informed Chandler via letter of how the Ludwell–Paradise House had been purchased, describing "the cooperation of some of my friends who are interested in things colonial".

[31] The house was deeded back from the college to the Colonial Williamsburg project on June 24, 1929; restoration had barely begun by early 1930.

[32] Significant archival and archaeological research was performed in preparation for the restoration undertaken by Perry, Shaw and Hepburn.

[33] Several of the changes made during the college's renovation of the building were undone, including alterations to the front door and windows and the porch.

In March 1935, an exhibition of loaned portions of Abby Aldrich Rockfeller's folk art collection opened in the Ludwell–Paradise House.

[36][note 8] Curator Holger Cahill spent 18 months in the American South searching for additional colonial pieces to add to the Ludwell–Paradise House collection.

A Colonial Williamsburg vice president, Rudolph Bares, and his wife, Pauline, lived in the Ludwell–Paradise House for several years in the 20th century.

[42] The Ludwell–Paradise House reflects the attitudes wealthy 18th-century Virginians had towards architecture, exemplified in what Colonial Williamsburg mason Josh Graml described as the building as "[s]olid, commodious and attractive, uncluttered by needless ornamentation".

[43] An example of early Georgian architecture, the Ludwell–Paradise House possesses a two-story high, one-floor deep front portion surmounted by a hip roof.

However, the thickness of the basement walls, placement of the chimneys, and the brickwork all indicate that the structure was completed as designed in a single early 1750s building campaign.

[51] As in other Flemish bond Williamsburg buildings, adjacent unglazed headers were utilized to maintain the pattern when necessary for completing courses of brick like those terminating at the front door and the window above it.

Whiffen commented that this masonry preserved the building's front from what "would amount to austerity" due to the "wide expanses of wall between the windows".

Brick foundations, including some colonial in appearance, for outbuildings were discovered during archaeological excavations behind the house in early 1931, with one building posited as a kitchen.

Outdoor kitchens were a common way to keep the heat of cooking away from the main building and other Williamsburg residences feature similar structures.