RUFFIN-SNIPES HOUSE

Peter Brown Ruffin House: This well-preserved, two-story, side-gabled house dates to the 1820s. It is three bays wide and single pile with two two-story gabled rear ells. The house has beaded weatherboards and one-to-five common bond exterior brick chimneys. A six-panel door centered on the façade has a classical surround with fluted pilasters. It is sheltered by a full-width, hip-roofed porch supported by fluted columns, likely a mid-19th-century addition, that is accessed by brick steps at the front and wooden stairs at the right (east) end. There are flush wood sheathing and nine-over-nine wood-sash windows on the first-floor façade, nine-over-six windows on the second-floor façade, and four-over-four windows in the gables. The side elevations have six-over-six wood-sash windows. At least one of the gabled rear ells was added c. 1840 and was constructed by local builder John Berry; it contains a handsome Federal-style stair typical of Berry's work. There is a one-story, shed-roofed wing, perhaps an enclosed porch, to the right of the right rear ell. The original owner of the house is unknown; Peter Brown Ruffin owned the house in the 1840s and was responsible for the addition.