According to local tradition, John Hamlin built the original section of this house in the mid-nineteenth century. Hamlin's house was a two-story log structure with flush-boarded interior walls and a corner stair. It had a separate kitchen building. Hamlin operated a store and a tobacco factory in Rockford and had a farm nearby. He was married to Elizabeth Dillard and they had five children. In the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, George Martin Burrus (1844-1934) purchased the property and remodeled the house. Burrus was a manufacturer of chewing tobacco and was married to Mary Dobson. He added a two-story frame wing to the front of the house and joined the one-story kitchen to the rear. A small porch with handsome chamfered posts was built along the ell formed by the joining of the original house with the front wing. Between the two sections is an open passage with a stair leading to the second floor. This simple but graceful stair is nearly identical to the one in the John Dobson House (SR 213) nearby and features a plain balustrade, a slender tapered newel, and a rounded ramped handrail. Stylistically, Burrus' alterations appear to be much older than the turn-of-the-century period. Contributing to this impression are the open-passage stair, the nine-over-six sash windows, the flush-boarded front gable, the boxed and molded cornice with cornice returns, the flush-sheathed walls, the two-panel doors, and the chamfered posts of the porch. Perhaps Burrus attached part of another, earlier, house to the Hamlin house, or perhaps he was just extremely traditional in his building. More extensive physical investigation would be necessary to help determine how this interesting house evolved. Behind the house is a combination well house/smokehouse. A low fieldstone retaining wall wraps around the front and side yards, adding to the picturesque quality of the property. Since the 1930's, the house has been the home of the Hardin Glenn and Creola (Burrus) Holyfield family. (SR 220) - Article taken directly from Simple Treasures - The Architectural Legacy of Surry County by Laura A.W. Phillips
Family tree note:
Hardin Glenn and Creola Burrus Holyfield were Doug Holyfield's grandparents. George Martin Burrus was Creola's uncle.
