John Tayloe Lomax, who owned Menokin in the Northern Neck, built a two-story brick house and taught law here until he accepted Thomas Jefferson's invitation to become the first professor of law at the new university in Charlottesville. Judge Alvin T. Embrey purchased the property in 1900 and, no doubt inspired and intimidated by the Greek Revival house across the street, proceeded to make it over in the Southern Colonial mode with a giant-order columned portico and intersecting one-story porch. Also added were bay windows and a rear addition whose brick is thinner than that of the original house and laid up in American bond.