The main block of the house, designed in 1832 by state architect, William Nichols, is centered on a prominent star-shaped hill.

[5] Williamson Allen Glover continued to expand the rear and interior of the house, through successive additions and reconfigurations, up to 1855.

The exterior of the house features a Carolina-type monumental two-story Ionic portico, east and west side porches, and a continuous cornice with dentils above the second story and the cupola.

The cupola functioned as a look-out over the plantation and, along with the great halls, as a way to exhaust heated air out of the house during hot weather.

[8] Though no longer extant, the grounds once included formal gardens, a carriage house, a two-story servant's quarters, a schoolhouse, several barns, a corn crib, a shop, five slave cabins behind the main house, and a "slave village" about one mile away.