The Samuel Gilmer House is noteworthy as one of the few surviving examples of Federal-style architecture in far southwest Virginia. Samuel Edmonson Gilmer was born near the town of Lebanon in Russell County in 1794, and built this house around 1820. The Gilmore family immigrated to America from Northern Ireland around 1735, and Samuel Gilmer’s grandfather received land grants within Russell County in 1756. This property has remained in the Gilmer family through six generations at the time of its listing in the registers in 2014. While the building has been refurbished, restored and added on to over the years, it retains classic Federal-style characteristics both in the interior and exterior. Other buildings and structures on the Samuel Gilmer House property that contribute to its historical significance include a detached original cellar building, and the remaining stone piers and abutments of a pre-1848 covered bridge that spanned Big Cedar Creek until removed circa 1936.  This covered bridge was likely part of the Cumberland Gap Turnpike, and stood next to the modern day U.S. Route 19.