Mount Zion was built for the Reverend Charles M. Thruston, an Anglican minister who began acquiring land in the area after he was appointed rector of Frederick Parish in 1768. In 1776 he resigned his ecclesiastical position, formed a company of soldiers, and fought in the American Revolution. His large stone house is Georgian, an idiom not often seen in Virginia west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a regional interpretation of the style in its materials and details. Instead of fine Georgian brickwork, the house has large limestone-block walls containing small double-sash windows that are ill-proportioned to the facade. A more successful nod to the style is seen in the second-floor Palladian-like window centered above the front entrance. A stone kitchen, stone meat house, and stone slave quarters are located to the rear of the dwelling.