The railroad is said to have financed the construction of a number of three-room workers’ cottages in Fifeville in the 1890s. The Gardner-Mays Cottage is typical of the many small workers’ cottages built and is one of very few retaining its original form without additions or new siding. It is a very simple one-over-one-room stucco cottage on a low foundation with an original one-room rear wing.

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 Gardner-Mays Cottage was listed in the registers under the Charlottesville MRA without a formal nomination document.