Ben Davis speaks with a sense of pride about his home, built by his great-great-grandfather, Josephus Leggett, around 1872.

The house stands on a rise near where Leggett Road intercepts U.S. Highway 264 just west of Washington.

“This house replaced a log cabin that was built in the early 1800s,” Davis noted. “That cabin was moved back and became a barn.”

Josephus Leggett built the two-story house for his son, McMiller Leggett. The house remained in the family and eventually passed to Davis’ grandfather, also named Josephus Leggett. He was a farmer and Laundromat owner, and his wife, Mabry, was an English teacher.

“He was born in this house and so was his father,” Davis said. “There were lots of babies born in this house and a lot of relatives died in this house.”

The house has remained in the family since it was built. Davis moved into the house around 1998.

“When I first moved in, the house was in pretty bad shape,” he acknowledged. “I painted it and got it into decent shape. My family decided to save the house, so I gutted the plaster walls and insulated. Downstairs, I knocked out walls and added a vaulted ceiling.”

The main part of the house boasts two bedrooms upstairs; the downstairs now has an open kitchen/living-room floor plan as well as a study and dining room. On the back of the house, Davis has converted an old kitchen wing into a master bedroom, bath and walk-in closet. A former porch was enclosed to make a comfortable sunroom.

Interesting details abound in the house. For the sunroom ceiling, Davis repurposed wood salvaged from a barn. The floors of the master bedroom are crafted of walnut from the property. In the front portion of the house, Davis was able to save the original flooring; the stair treads to the second floor were made from quarter-sawn heart pine taken from a Leggett tobacco barn, as were window and door casings. And fireplaces original to the house add architectural interest.

On the outside, Davis said the siding is mostly heart pine from which multiple layers of paint were stripped; the wood was then sealed, primed and painted. Near the front door stands a cypress log smokehouse, which Davis estimated was built in the early 1800s.

Davis said he made concessions when renovating the house, adding necessary improvements to modernize his “new” home. Those improvements included central heat and air conditioning, new wiring and plumbing and modern appliances in the kitchen. When choosing a front door, however, he bowed to tradition and purchased an early 1800s piece salvaged from a South Carolina plantation home.

“It’s more expensive to restore an old house than it is to totally build a new home,” Davis said. “I think that with the history of the house, being in the family, it was worth it in the end. I think my great-great-grandparents would be proud it’s still standing, and hopefully it will be here another 100 years.”

Davis has furnished the house with a collection of family pieces supplemented by antique treasures he’s found in his travels. And he insists the house is still a work in progress, saying he wants to add walnut shelves to the study.

Today, the house is still part of a working farm. Davis has operated an organic farming operation there for several years.

“This is one of only a handful of U.S.-certified organic farms in this area,” he said. “We’ve experimented with retail and wholesale. I think instead of trying to grow everything, we’re going to grow organic yellow cabbage collards this year. They taste good and the bonus is we don’t use any pesticides on them.”