Layman, a lawyer and businessman, also served as the president of the Craig City Improvement Company and as a senator in the Virginia General Assembly from 1920 to 1934. His house and its domestic and agricultural outbuildings form an exceptional collection of Victorian-era structures. Oriented to one of the town's most prominent intersections the house initially consisted of a simple cross-gable form and an L-shaped front porch. In 1914, a conical-roofed octagonal tower and seven-bay Ionic-columned porch replaced the original porch, and one-story polygonal bays with leaded-glass transoms were added to the principal gable ends. The house's windows help distinguish the old from the newer sections—original windows have two-over-two sash, whereas later alterations have one-over-one sash. The grounds include a tree-shaded garden, a flower house with large casement windows and a bracketed cornice, and a weatherboarded frame office with elaborate jigsawn woodwork (matching that of the house) at its gable ends and front porch.