lineage for their class." John Russell Pope had traveled extensively and the firm based the design for Branch House on a large 16th-century country house in Warwickshire, England known as Compton Wynyates, which features numerous exterior details also found at Branch House including linenfold paneling inside and exterior half-timbering and brick diapering, along with oriel and casement windows with leaded glass. Pope's office primarily borrowed details and design elements from Compton Wynyates, which wraps around a large interior courtyard, sits on the interior of a large country parcel, and is highly expansive and asymmetrical. Branch House, by contrast, includes no courtyard, sits adjacent to a street corner on an urban parcel and is largely compact and more symmetrical. Construction and details Exterior features of Branch House include its perimeter wall of brick construction, wall materials of weathered brick combined with distressed and patinized briarcliff sandstone, sculpted stone motifs, sandstone door and window surrounds, chimney pots, brickwork with diamond diapering, leaded glass, carved-stone heraldry, oriel windows with cul-de-lampe (corbeling resembling the conical bottom of ancient lamps), bargeboards resembling those of Compton Wynyates, inscriptions at the window heads referring to the Branch family's arrival in Virginia during the 17th century, a tower reminiscent of that at Hampton Court Palace, and three characteristically Tudor twisted brick chimneys that resemble those found in Tudor pattern books of the period. The interior features vaulted ceilings, curvilinear tracery featuring heraldic symbols, heavily decorated pargeted Tudor-style plaster molding, and modern features including fireproof concrete floors and a redundant boiler in case the primary boiler failed. Utilizing artifacts from the Branches' personal Renaissance collection, the house incorporated an Italian door and a carved wood gallery screen (or minstrel screen) from England. Until Beulah Gould Branch's death, almost every wall surface in the home's primary rooms was covered with the couple's collection of tapestries and textiles. The Branch Family John Kerr Branch was born in Danville, Virginia, to Mary Louise Merritt Kerr (1840–1896) and John Patteson Branch (1830–1915), both originally of Petersburg, Virginia. The elder Branch was a noted Richmond banker, investor, financier and philanthropist. On his death in 1915, The New York Times called him the "Nestor of Richmond Bankers." John Kerr Branch grew up in Richmond and attended the McGuire School, subsequently studying in Paris and Germany (1882–1884). At age 21 he began clerking with his father's firm, Thomas Branch & Company. Branch invested successfully in real