Richmond Hill was the home of North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Richmond Mumford Pearson and his family, and from 1848 to 1878 Pearson conducted a law school in a small building west of the house, with students living in nearby log cabins or boarding with local families, some across the Yadkin River at Rockford; he reportedly taught a thousand students. Pearson served as chief justice from 1858 to 1787, opposed secession, and during the Civil War championed individual rights over Confederate government power by issuing writs of habeas corpus to free several men jailed for avoiding conscription or deserting, because he believed the conscription laws were unconstitutional. Although the Confederate government denounced his stand and Governor Zebulon B. Vance continued using the Home Guard to pursue and arrest deserters, Pearson persisted, declaring, "Let justice be done though the heavens fall." During Reconstruction he presided at the impeachment trial of Governor William W. Holden, and he was the only high-ranking state official to hold office during both the Civil War and Reconstruction and to die while still in office. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh. Pearson constructed the house about 1860, and it combines elements of Greek Revival and Tuscan architectural styles with simple Greek-Revival-style interior woodwork.