This nationally significant work of Federal architecture was designed by Alexander Parris with advice from Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Parris, a native of Portland, Maine, moved to Richmond ca. 1811 where he designed several houses, including this house on East Clay Street for Richmond lawyer John Wickham. Completed in 1812, Wickham’s house has an elegantly restrained neoclassical exterior. Inside is a resplendent suite of reception rooms arranged around a circular hall containing a graceful curved stair. Each room boasts remarkable long-hidden painted wall decorations carefully uncovered and conserved in a comprehensive restoration begun in the 1980s. Mann Valentine II purchased the house in 1882 and filled it with his collection of art, Indian artifacts, and historic objects. In 1892, he left the property and collections to serve as a museum of Richmond history and culture known today as the Valentine Museum and since expanded into adjacent historic buildings (such as the Decatur O. Davis House).