of John Russell Pope for the design. The site was adjacent to the colonnaded memorial to Jefferson Davis at 2501 Monument Avenue at Davis Street, in what is now the Monument Avenue Historic District, itself within Richmond's Fan district. Notably, the site is on axis with the Broad Street Station to the north, possibly related to John Kerr Branch's professional associations with the railroad. Overall design According to the 1984 application to the National Register of Historic Places, Pope himself had limited involvement in the project and never visited the building. The architectural construction drawings were dated August 18, 1916, and signed by his business partner, architect Otto R. Eggers. Floor plans included 28 major rooms: public halls, galleries, private suites, servants' quarters, a ballroom, and storage rooms designated specifically for carpets, china, paintings – and suits of armour. The overall size of the house has been reported as ranging from 27,000 to 33,000 sq ft. It is roughly three times the size of its neighbors on Monument Avenue. Branch House features a central portion flanked by two projecting pavilions. The roof is double-pitched with parapets and castellation (or crenelations), creating numerous complexities and hidden flat areas. The eastern pavilion has a three-story castellated bay. The 1984 application to the National Register of Historic Places described the home's relationship to the street as "extremely awkward." Pope's office had made provision for a garage on Park Avenue, but a two-door garage was not added until the 1920s, at the west end of the building. Although from the outside the house appears to have three storeys, and although the interior is logically laid out, the interior is organized on numerous different levels — variously reported as ranging from 11 levels to as many as 19. Style and inspiration The historic style of Branch House has been variously reported as Tudor, Tudor Revival, Tudor-Jacobean or Domestic Tudor. The 1984 application to the National Register of Historic Places noted that the design "incorporated salient features from several 16th-century English country houses to form a convincingly correct assemblage of design elements," adding that "to maintain the illusion of age, the architect had the building materials distressed and aged to add patina to the image of power and pedigree" and furthermore that "barons of American industry, finance, and culture, such as Branch, appropriated the traditions of English domestic architecture as a way of asserting a noble