Fluvanna County’s Gum Creek is a little-altered and well-preserved example of a characteristic type of Virginia Piedmont house of the late 18th century. It is a frame, center-passage-plan, two-over-two-room dwelling with a stone foundation, basement kitchen, and stone and brick end chimneys. The house, built about 1797 for James Dunlop Ross, son of David Ross, a prominent figure in 18th-century Virginia, is representative of the modest dwellings of middle-class farmers and planters in that era. Of the few such buildings that still exist, Gum Creek has seen the fewest alterations among those that remain structurally sound. Much of Gum Creek’s interior woodwork has never been painted. Two one-story shed additions were made in 1839, a porch with a small room and a 6’ by 7’ room extension for a north ground-floor room.