The home was originally built in 1846 by James A. Terrell, on land purchased from the State of Missouri. During the Civil War years the house was used by the Union Army Headquarters. In the summer of 1884, Mrs. Louisa Walker Atkinson Smith, a widow with six children, moved to Macon Missouri from a family owned plantation outside of Staunton, Virginia and Purchased the property. With assistance from the Episcopal Church, the home was converted into a boarding school for girls and young ladies, and was given the name of St. Agnes Hall. Following the schools closing in 1895, Evelyn Lee (Smith) Kem (daughter of Mrs. Louisa Walker Atkinson Smith) and her husband J.P., extensively remodeled the house into a private residence, becoming the childhood home of the future U.S. Senator James Pres