Listed on the NRHP in 1976 for its architectural significance. Originally constructed in 1840 as a two-story, center hall plan house, the building was later altered in the 1890s in the popular Victorian Era Queen Anne style. The name of the house derives from several owners, the first of whom was Frank Smith, whose slaves constructed the house. After the Civil War, Joshua Little, a circuit preacher of the Powell Valley region, purchased the house and later sold the house to his son, Silas, in the late 1890s. Silas Little amassed a small fortune in the Knoxville clothing industry and is responsible for transforming the house with its Victorian Era architectural embellishments. According to the NRHP nomination form, this house has been linked to other brick antebellum homes constructed in Campbell and Claiborne counties as having been constructed by slaves belonging to John Kincaid II. In fact, the date “1840” and initials purported to be from the slaves who built the house are said to be carved into wood beams under the house.