This building served as a tollhouse on the North (now Maury) River, near the canal docks, and at the head of the covered bridge that once linked Lexington to routes north. Samuel Jordan had built the bridge and used the house as a place to collect tolls. It was a popular stop for travelers, and in 1886 the Tankersley family took it over and ran it as a tavern. The house was built in two sections, with the older part being the hall-parlor, two-room portion on the southeast. A high, exposed stone basement forms the ground floor and supports a frame structure nestled into the steeply rising bank. A two-story porch stretches across the entire front of the building. The two-story section with a separate two-level porch was added c. 1890. The house was once part of a thriving community called Levesia just across the river from Lexington.