Built about 1734 by noted planter, burgess and patriot Landon Carter (1710–1778), it is one of Virginia's finest Georgian brick manor houses.

The plantation property on which it stands extends as far east as Jugs Creek, and north and west to United States Route 360.

The interior features a fully paneled central hall measuring 18 by 48 feet (5.5 by 14.6 m), and an ornate carved walnut stairway that has been described as one of the finest in the nation.

[4] Landon Carter's firstborn son and heir Robert Wormeley Carter, who would be the first owner to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates finished or remodeled parts of the interior, purchasing cabinetry and other items from William Buckland who built the neighboring Mount Airy for Col. John Tayloe II.

His only surviving child, a daughter, married Dr. Armistead Wellford of Fredericksburg, who received a federal pardon at the war's end.