Reflecting a time of rebuilding in New Kent County following destruction of the area’s physical landscape and agricultural economy during the Civil War, the architecture of the main residence and domestic outbuilding at Moss Side is vernacular in form, styling, and construction. The two side-by-side dwellings, circa 1870 and 1880, employed the then new technique of balloon-frame construction with circular-sawn lumber, likely produced from pine on the property. They are believed to have been constructed for a sawmill operator and one of his employee’s families. Though the design of these resources may be somewhat commonplace for this period and region of the country, the building type has not been frequently recorded in the county. From roughly 20 extant central-passage-plan dwellings constructed between 1870 and 1900 and documented in New Kent County, Moss Side is the first to be listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.