As the only surviving early I-house in Blount County, the dwelling is representative of the residence of a financially comfortable agricultural family in the Appalachian region of Alabama.

[1][2] Pennsylvania-born and Welsh-descended Robert Griffin Griffith (1801–1856) became one of the first permanent settlers in Alabama after the Cherokee Removal.

He eventually married Mary E. Vanzant of Franklin County, Tennessee, and became the postmaster of Summit in July 1846.

Griffith purchased a portable cotton gin shortly before his death in 1856, marking a shift from corn as the farm's primary product.

The interior exhibits rarely-surviving faux painting on the parlor baseboards and mantel, and on doors throughout the house.