Located on the outskirts of the town of Kilmarnock on the Lancaster/Northumberland county border, Clifton is a two-story weatherboarded residence with brick nogging that was built in 1785 for Landon Carter II. The house, three outbuildings, farmland, and interspersed woods occupy part of the vast Virginia holdings of Robert “King” Carter. The original house has a central chimney and an end-gable roof. In the early 1800s, two one-story additions with end chimneys were appended to the east and west ends. One of these additions was removed in the 1860s, and later replaced with a side porch. After building the house, Landon and Catherine Tayloe Carter lived there for a decade before moving to the Carter ancestral home, Sabine Hall, in Richmond County. During several periods in its history Clifton has been used as a “getaway” or hunting lodge. Clifton remained in the Carter family until 1842 when it was sold to James Armistead Palmer, and it was still owned by the Palmer family at the time that the property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.