John Emory Richards grew up at Locust Grove (
WS4) and fought for the Union (in the Sixth Delaware Regiment) in the Civil War, after which he built this house on 212 acres bought from his father's estate. He raised sheep, grew grain, and cultivated an orchard of 2,000 trees. The house of simplified Italianate style completes the important complex of Richards family homes. An associated structure nearby is the frame Epworth Church (1906), a deteriorating example of rural Sussex County's once-numerous Methodist places of worship.