The Homestead was built in 1820 by Nehemiah Wood, with an addition completed in 1822 by his son Harrison. The Wood family, a pioneer family of Gallia County, arrived in 1805, and the Homestead remained in the family for more than 100 years. This two-story Federal-style building was constructed of bricks made on site by freed slaves who accompanied Nehemiah Wood from Virginia. The lane just below the house was a stagecoach route between Chillicothe and Gallipolis, and in the mid-1800s the Homestead served as an inn and stagecoach stop. In 1938 the Wood family sold the farm to Rio Grande College, which used the land for college gardening and farming programs. Bob and Jewell Evans bought the farm in 1953 so their children could grow up in the country, and they hosted restaurant owners and grocery meat department managers there to show that Bob Evans Farms Sausage came from a real farm. With its country kitchen and beautiful farm landscape, the Homestead became an ideal setting for television commercials that Bob Evans Farms began producing in the 1950s. The Bob Evans Farm Festival began in 1971, and as visitors steadily increased, Bob and Jewell built a new home closer to Gallipolis. Bob Evans Farms acquired the farm from Bob in 1973 and has maintained it as a working farm and local historical center. The Homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 14, 1987.