Not to be confused with the James Lee House at 690 Adams Avenue in Memphis' Victorian Village Historic District, the James Lee House at 239 Adams Avenue was the FIRST house of that name to be constructed in the area. Built in 1869 for James Lee Sr., the founder of a river steamboat company and an iron works, it was later inherited by his son James Lee Jr., a maritime attorney, whose house at 690 Adams Avenue has become a popular bed-and-breakfast. The two-story house at 239 Adams Avenue was built in a visually involved style, a Victorian Italianate style that uses openings, often grouped vertically or horizontally with string courses and heavily bracketed multiple cornices to implement animated ornamentation. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.