You are standing in front of a graphic panel titled “House History: 1735 House.” To your left is a doorway leading to section one of the exhibition: Introduction and First Peoples. To your right is the fireplace and a graphic panel titled “House History: Fireplace.” Behind you is a large, four-sided artifact case.

The panel in front of you includes text and four images.

The main text reads:

HOUSE HISTORY
1735 House

You are standing in the oldest part of the house, built in 1735 for tobacco planter William Sellman and his family. Approximately half of the original house remains.

Architectural historians think this room was the hall—the main living space. It would have been a boisterous center of activity, with people cooking, eating, doing household chores, and socializing.

At a time when most houses were made of wood, this brick house displayed the wealth and prestige of the Sellman family.

A drawing at the top of the panel shows what the 1735 house may have looked like. It is a rectangular building with two chimneys, two windows, and a door on the lower level, and three windows on the upper level.

Three images at the bottom of the panel are headlined “House History Clues”:

A photo showing a red brick marked “1735,” which helps date the construction of the house.

A black-and-white photo of Woodlawn House’s original chimney. The caption reads: The original chimney had a plaster band with a “W” and an “A” for William and Anne Sellman, the house’s first owners.

A photo of a low brick wall overgrown with green plants. The caption reads: In the 1700s, the Sellmans added a fashionable terraced garden to their property, another sign of their wealth. This photo shows a similar landscape feature at the neighboring Java plantation. The brick walls were added in the 1900s.