Edward Cooper's first house, of frame, was damaged in the 1910 fire, so he subsequently rebuilt in brick. He also acquired adjacent property, ensuring that no commercial structures would be built in this block on the south side of Main Street. Eventually, a “Cooper compound” emerged, consisting of the main house, garage and servants' quarters, gazebo, pool house, and a bungalow for a son's family.
The main house is a late but exemplary Queen Anne structure, more remarkable for its size, materials, and color than any stylistic advancement. Walls are of vivid orange Roman brick, the copper roof an intense green. A handsome Palladian motif centers the second floor of the facade and is matched in an attic gable on the west side elevation. Masons from Piedicavallo, Italy, who arrived in Bramwell in 1910 and built several buildings in the area, laid the stone foundations and massive cheek walls of the wraparound first-story porch. Edward Cooper was the son of John Cooper, who opened the first West Virginia mine in the Pocahontas coalfield, and the father of Thomas, who chose to live in Bluefield (see ME17.2).