A strikingly handsome specimen of an eastern Virginia gentry homestead, Little Town was built in 1811 for James C. Bailey, the county clerk. An 1820 tax assessment gave Little Town the highest value of any house in Sussex County. The Flemish-bond brickwork and fine joinery of the windows, cornice, and pedimented porch are marks of a building of quality. A folk painting of the national seal on the parlor chimneypiece has led to the claim that Bailey used the room for court sessions. More likely, the seal represented the owner’s patriotic fervor. Elsewhere on the interior of Little Town are sections of original graining and marbleizing. The dining room mantel has a delicately molded frame decorated with reliefs of exotic animals—two camels, a rhinoceros, and an elephant. The house and surrounding farm remain in the ownership of the builder’s family.