At the core of this two-story clapboarded house is a log dog trot structure , built c. 1835 and occupied by one of Fayetteville 's first doctors . That original structure , still visible in parts of the interior , was repeatedly extended and enlarged to achieve its present appearance as a five-bay house with a projecting central front porch . A 19th-century leanto extends the building to the rear , giving it the profile of a classic New England saltbox , a house type rarely seen in Arkansas . The house was purchased in 1840 by the widow of John Ridge , the Cherokee leader who was assassinated after signing a treaty leading to the Cherokee removal
Cherokee removal
Trail of Tears
Ridge House (Fayetteville, Arkansas)