Sunnyside is set on a large wooded lot at the edge of the city of Charlottesville. It began as a two-room log structure built by John Alphin about 1800. It was enlarged and embellished in the Gothic Revival style in the 1850s first by Ira Garrett and later by William Carroll. It is said that Washington Irving’s house, Sunnyside, in Tarrytown, New York, was its inspiration. Sunnyside exhibits scroll-sawn verge boards and pointed-arch windows fitted with arched shutters. Lattice panels framed by simple posts topped with cornice caps support the veranda. The fieldstone chimney on the north end has stepped weatherings and is capped with a pair of octagonal chimney pots. Col. Richard Thomas Walker Duke acquired the house in 1863; the Dukes lived in it for 100 years. Sunnyside is owned by the University of Virginia and is used for housing.