This Italianate-style home was built in 1853 for Charles Van Dusen, a riverboat captain who owned the New Albany-built steamboat 'Uncle Sam'. The captain wanted his home built on high ground, so he had dirt hauled in by carts to create a hill before beginning construction. After the death of Capt. Van Dusen, John and Avesta Shields Nunemacher purchased the house, and it remained in the Nunemacher-Carlton through 1927. The Nunemachers' daughter, Emma Shields Nunemacher Carlton, came to live here after the death of her husband. Mrs. Carlton was a writer of articles and verse for many leading newspapers and magazines around the country, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The stereoscope image below, from the collection of the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library, shows the house circa 1880.