Homespun, a 1790's log, stone and brick house on 466 acres, was originally the home of John Miller. In 1815, the property was left to his son, Godfrey, and daughter, Rebecca. Upon her marriage in 1824, Homespun became the residence of Rebecca Miller and her husband, John N. Bell. The home and grounds remained in the Miller/Bell family until near the end of the Civil War when John N. Bell, a prisoner of war, lost the farm to creditors. Stewart Bell Sr., a grandson of John N. Bell, bought the property and paid off the debt 75 years later.

  The architectural style of the residence is a modified "dog trot," so named because the two first floor parlors were originally divided by an open breezeway which also featured access to the second floor and cellar.

  In the early 1800's, a stone and brick addition to the home completely enclosed one of the two original chimneys. The year 1838 is carved in a stone near the top of a smokehouse thought to have been built at about the same time.

  Homespun has a dirt-floored cellar with a hand-carved wood window grate. The foundation is hardwood logs. The first floor walls are plaster over wood lath over log. The second floor has exposed log walls. The attic has hand carved pegs in numbered log rafters. The smokehouse and the residence have standing seam tin roofs.

  The floors in the building are random width heart pine. The kitchen windows are original.

  Cedar Creek Grade, which passes within a few yards of the home, was a major route for troop movement to and from Winchester . Homespun was ideally situated to serve as a temporary hospital and convalescent center during the Civil War. Post Civil War, Homespun reverted to farm use with either members of the Bell family or tenant farmers in residence.

  During the late 1900's and early 2000's, the farm acreage was sold in several parcels. Today, only one acre of the original farm remains with the historic home. By the end of 2005, Homespun was surrounded by more than 200 new homes.

  In 2003/2004, current owners Mary and R. J. Turner renovated the former residence. The building now houses Homespun Gifts and Gardens, an eight-room shop filled with traditional and modern American-made gifts, furnishings and crafts. An adjacent half-acre of land, once orchards on the Miller/Bell estate, was planted as a wildflower meadow.

Homespun is a Virginia Landmark property and is listed on
The National Register of Historic Places.