Jones Law Office The Jones Law Office , also known as the Lorenzo D . Kelly House , is a structure within the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park . In the nineteenth century the structure was owned by Kelly and used as a single - family house . The original law office was also used as a dwelling by John Robinson for his large family in the nineteenth century after Kelly . The one room structure is historically significant to the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and was registered in the National Park Service ' s database of Official Structures on June 26 , 1989 . History . The Jones Law Office was originally constructed about 1850 for the law office and village home of Crawford Jones , Appomattox County farmer , attorney , and local secessionist leader . Early in 1854 he began sending one of his slaves into the village to purchase cotton handkerchiefs and cakes of " Yankie " soap . From the slave he learned of cheap rents Samuel D . McDearmon was charging for places in the village of Appomattox Court House ( then known also as Clover Hill ) . He decided to get a village law office for convenience , since it would be closer to the courthouse for him than where he normally lived . In his book " A Place Called Appomattox , " historian William Marvel describes history of the building as follows : Later in his book Marvel describes further history of the building showing the distressing financial situation of the owner : Crawford Jones . Jones made his regular home at his family ' s plantation . In 1850 William A . Jones ( subject ' s father ) had 66 slaves at this plantation . Crawford Jones ( subject of article ) had five slaves as of 1860 when he was 29 years old . He inherited several more slaves after his father ' s death , which he co - owned with his mother . Crawford was living at his father ' s plantation in 1850 but on his own in 1860 , according to U . S . Census for Appomattox County . He died in the summer of 1863 leaving his wife , Elizabeth , with the law office in the village . Lorenzo D . Kelly . The Jones Law Office has the name of the Lorenzo D . Kelly house and was misidentified by the National Park Service in their 1989 National Register of Historic Places Registration application . The U . S . Census for the year of 1850 for Appomattox County shows Lorenzo as a wheelwright . In 1860 he is shown as living at the Jones Law Office structure , with his widowed mother , two of his younger siblings and his grandmother . At the time of Gen . Lee ' s surrender in 1865 the structure was located a little more than a hundred yards away from the Bocock - Isbell house behind the Clover Hill Tavern in the village . John Robertson ( Robinson ) . Around 1867 John Robertson ( a black shoemaker ) and his wife lived in the structure with three children . In November 1869 there was a fourth child added to the Robertson family , all living in this one - room building in the village . Robertson and his wife are buried in a small graveyard behind the house . The Civil War historian William Marvel uses the spelling Robertson , while the National Park Service uses the spelling Robinson . Historical significance . The Appomattox Court House National Historical Park declares there are three of the National Register Criteria that make the structure historically significant . Description . The Jones Law Office is a single story structure furnished on the first floor as a simple home of a mid - nineteenth century craftsman . It has a centered entry door with a single window on the side . The hall house is one room deep and is of post and beam construction . The house comes with a full attic and a raised cellar . It is about twenty one and a half feet wide and seventeen and a half feet deep . The west side elevation is centered with an end gable exterior sandstone chimney . It has an enclosed cellar entry with a shed roof . The typical single residence one story pedimented house has an entry porch at the center entry . It is sheathed in unpainted weatherboards with five to five and a half inch exposure . The gable roof is covered with round - butt wood shingles with box cornice and crown moulding at the eaves and simple rake with ogee moulding at the gable ends . The first floor windows are 6 / 6 double hung sashes without shutters . A similar 6 / 9 double hung sash window is on the principal floor . The attic story on the gable ends has four - light upward - swinging casement sashes . The basement sashes are four - light hoppers . The rear door on the south side has a centered four - paneled door providing to the first floor and another pair of cellar casements of three light . The front entrance on the north side has a porch with facing pediment covered in clapboards with two six - inch square posts and two six foot by three inch pilaster s , simple one foot by three - quarter inch baluster s . It has a heavy rounded rail on the side only and four riser steps . Flanking the porch to the west is a 6 / 9 sash window . No windows have shutters . The interior has been restored , however due to its age it has little integrity . The structure exterior was restored in 1963 .