On September 8, 1881, Dr. Hampson Strother Clay was reported as intending to become a physician in Augusta. Before settling there, he had lived in Darst Bottom and practiced medicine for about eight years after graduating from the Missouri Medical College in 1873, becoming known as one of the leading physicians in that part of Missouri. He built this house in 1885 for his second wife, Marie Koch Clay, and they raised a family of four sons and five daughters there. Soon after the birth of their ninth child, Dr. Clay died of congenital heart disease, leaving Marie to raise the family. All of the sons eventually became doctors, as did their sons; one daughter, Mabel, became a nurse, and two daughters became teachers. The home was sold out of the Clay family in 1956 for $5,500.00 and subdivided into two properties, and later owners added the first bathroom and central heating. Restoration began in 1986, and after the current owners bought the home in 1991, they completed final restoration work and gardens. Alan Buehre, a graduate of Washington University and the University of Denver, and his wife Leigh, drawing on extensive culinary and hospitality experience, opened the home to guests in October 1998, added the Guest Cottage in April 2002, and established it as Augusta's most elegant country Victorian bed and breakfast.