Built ca. 1886 by James E. Timberlake, a foreman at the Charlottesville Woolen Mills, the Timberlake-Branham House occupies an extensive hilltop site that Timberlake himself never subdivided. Its two-story, three-bay, single-pile original block has a distinctive two-story semi-octagonal addition at the eastern end built sometime in the early 20th century.

The buildings and districts listed under the Charlottesville Multiple Resource Area nomination represent a cross section of all the city’s historic periods, from the founding of Charlottesville in the 1760s through the advent of the automobile and the impact it had on the city’s expansion. Also included are buildings that have played an important part in the history of Charlottesville’s black community. The Timberlake-Branham House was listed in the registers under the Charlottesville MRA without a formal nomination document.