Soon after the arrival of the railroad in 1881, local businessmen organized the Waynesboro Company, which laid out lots along Wayne Avenue. Known locally as the Avenue, the street boasted the houses of many prominent Waynesboro business and professional families during the town's boom years from 1890 through World War II. One of the best surviving examples of Queen Anne on the Avenue is this house erected by a prominent local builder, who also built James Dooley's summer house Swannanoa (NE14). Renovations have tamed the Lavell House's more irregular facade and removed much of its original ornamentation. Around 1929, when the DuPont plant opened, the family divided the house into apartments to bring in income during the Great Depression.