The house is a one-room, rural vernacular cottage, typical of the dwellings that used to dot the Chesapeake landscape. A frame building with brick nogging and weatherboard, it has two exterior chimneys, one for the main room and the other for the ell. Reed, who discovered the cause of and treatment for yellow fever, was born in the house in 1851, while his father, a Methodist minister, waited for completion of a nearby parsonage. Purchased and restored by the Medical Society of Virginia in 1926, it was transferred to the APVA, which manages the property.