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On the bluff the Marquis de Lafayette had used for his gun emplacements in 1781, Thomas Dunn built his distinctive plantation house overlooking the river and Petersburg. Dunn's one-story frame house was clearly inspired by his neighbor's Violet Bank (CS5) built ten years earlier. His house's front section, as at Violet Bank, has octagonal ends framing an inset central entrance. Oak Hill, however, has an irregular H-shaped plan with a rectangular rear section linked by a large central room and porch to the octagonal front section. A center passage separates the dining room and parlor of the front section, which is lit by fashionable triple-hung windows. The interior Federal trim is handsome but more restrained than that of Violet Bank.