Armorer John Brush built this as a center-passage house, ruder than the James Geddy House, about 1719 and added the left rear (northeast) wing one or two years later. Between 1729 and 1742 builder Henry Cary, Jr., remodeled it to make both the public and private spaces more refined. The stair, unusually rich for a Virginia house of this scale, dates from Cary's refurbishing. The house reached its present appearance in the decade before the Revolution, when Mayor Thomas Everard added wainscoting, wallpaper, and at least eight different paint colors.