Complex geometry and the patterns created by contrasting-colored brick, make this one of the most visually lively houses on the street, and an important contributor to the row of four similar brick houses, all dating from the last half of the 1 880s. The house at 230 Jefferson Avenue was built in 1886 for J. Allen Patton, a partner in the venerable local banking firm of W.S. Patton Sons & Company. At the time of his death only a few years later, he was a partner in Patton & Talbott, selling fire, life and accident insurance, and real estate. His widow continued to live here for about the next fifteen years.

Prior to its acquisition by the present owners in 1990, the house changed hands infrequently over the 70 years after the Patton heirs conveyed the property to Morris Halperin in 1919. Families such as the Dickersons, Crews, and Kecks, for example, resided here for many years or even decades. Mr. & Mrs. Coleman Maddox, Sr., who live here today beside their son, Mr. C.B. Maddox, Jr., and other energetic urban pioneers like Mr. William Wellbank who also lives next door, have made the reclamation of Jefferson Avenue a continuing project, house by house, for well over a decade.