Thanks to owner James Webb for identifying the house. One of the best-known in Cuthbert, it was built by John McKenzie Gunn for his new bride, Sarah Douglass. It was later owned by the Brown family.

On a trip to Cuthbert in August 2018 I had the pleasure of meeting James and getting a tour of the house.

James has been restoring this treasure, room by room, for several years.

The impressive scale of the house is evident in the 9 over 9 windows.

I enjoyed the wonderful view of the recently restored Randolph County Courthouse from the courtyard.

One last note about the house, from the late John McKenzie Gunn: My thanks to Mr. Webb for restoring my childhood home to a condition I judge to be better than it ever was before. It was a cold, drafty old house, with wide pine floor boards over no subfloor and no basement, the underside of the house not enclosed. The ceilings on the first floor were 16 feet high, and windows did not fit tightly. My grandfather, John Douglass Gunn, was born and died in the same room in that house. My father, another John McK., was born there. My grandmother called it “a woman killer.” My mother hated it. My siblings and I were the fifth generation to live in that house, my great-great grandmother having joined her son and his family there after she was widowed. The house was sold out of the family in 1941 or 1942, after my parents and my siblings and I moved to Montgomery. We have no close relatives still living in Cuthbert. I loved Cuthbert as a child, and my memories of life in that house are only of the warmest kind. I have lived most of my adult life in Lexington, Virginia.

The John McKenzie Gunn (1924-2021) who left the comment was the great-great grandson of the builder. He was a longtime professor of Economics at Washington & Lee University and shared many memories of Cuthbert before his death.

National Register of Historic Places