It was built by Charles Johnston, and is one of the earliest homes in the Lynchburg area to display the architectural details and refinements characteristic of Federal design.

While Charles Johnston lived in the house he was visited by Thomas Jefferson of Poplar Forest who went to the home as a dinner guest December 1817.

During the occupation by the Union soldiers, the residents of the house, including retired Major Hutter and his family, were locked upstairs.

Before retreating, General Hunter gave orders to his troops to ransack the house, and "Union soldiers plunged bayoneted rifles into the family portraits hanging on the walls..."[3] Other buildings on the property consist of two 20th-century tenant houses, one frame and one brick.

This article about a property in Lynchburg, Virginia on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.