1818: Spencer Roane’s first cousin and fellow Juntist John Brockenbrough moved on from his beautiful home on the Rappahannock in old Tappahannock, to building a grand mansion in the state capital befitting his stature as a preeminent bank president. It is certain that Roane spent time there, doubtless discussing Jefferson’s continuing war with John Marshall – in front of whom Brockenbrough had earlier served as a juror in the famous Aaron Burr treason trial in Richmond.

Long before earning the designation of White House, the home was known for decades as the Brockenbrough house, after John Brockenbrough, president of the Bank of Virginia who commissioned the building of the large residence. The house built on two adjoining lots on the southeast corner of 12th and K (later Clay) street overlooking the Shockoe Valley is typically attributed to Robert Mills, a prominent American neo-classical architect and acquaintance of John Brockenbrough’s. The home, typical of Richmond’s finer early nineteenth century dwellings, was two-stories tall with a slate flat roof. The principal floor featured a parlor, drawing room and dining room, while the bedrooms were upstairs. A kitchen and servants’ residence were located in an adjoining outbuilding. A garden was built on the remaining land, with terraces down the hillside to the east.

Brockenbrough made changes to the house a few years after its completion, remodeling the front door and entrance hall, enhancing the wood trim especially on the first floor, and replacing the rectangular staircase with a graceful circular one. Brockenbrough and his wife lived in the showcase home in Richmond’s elite Court End neighborhood until 1844.”

via The Museum of the Confederacy: Visit the White House of the Confederacy.  Of course the house went on to greater fame in the Civil War as the White House of the Confederacy, with Jefferson and Varina Davis living there, and today it serves as the centerpiece of the Museum of the Confederacy.