On a wooded ridge in the western part of Allegan overlooking the city, this Gothic Revival house was built by one of Allegan's most noted citizens. General Benjamin D. Pritchard (1835–1907) was a lawyer and a banker, who became a Civil War hero because of his part in the capture of Jefferson Davis. Pritchard came to Allegan from Ohio in 1856. The house has steeply pitched cross-gables over an H-shaped plan. A large veranda, added later, wraps around one corner of the house. The elegant hanging oval staircase in the entranceway was built to Pritchard's own design. This building owes much to a plan in Andrew Jackson Downing's Cottage Residences (1842). Like the River Cottage example in Downing's book, the Pritchard house is built on a hill to take advantage of a fine view and shows cross-gables, peaked dormers, bay windows, and porches.