Thomas Jefferson is credited with the design of the James Semple House on East Francis Street in Colonial Williamsburg. Built about 1770, it is a prominent early example of Classical Revival residential architecture whose design has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, and it was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The house is a wood-frame structure: a central two-story block flanked by single-story wings set back in recess.
The central block is covered by a front-facing gabled roof with a full pediment; the wings present side-facing gables. The three-bay central block has a center entrance topped by a transom window and sheltered by a gabled portico supported by Doric columns, complete with a dentillated pediment and dentillated eaves. The exact date of construction is uncertain, but surviving documentation records early ownership by the Harrison family, and that Benjamin Harrison V sold the property sometime before 1769 to Dr. William Pasteur.
Notice the Doric portico, the dentillated pediment, and the wings stepping back on either side of this classical façade.