Homewood is located at 255 Milledge Heights (Tax Parcel No. 17-3-C3-H-001).
 

This two-story frame house is a late Federal example of the side-hall or half-house plan and an unusual early-nineteenth century variation of New England residential traditions. Both floors share the nearly square plan of two rooms with a side hall and staircase. With a second set of rooms, the house would have a balanced four-over-four room, central hall plan. Another unusual feature of the house, rare for southern houses of this era, is its central chimney placement, which served fireplaces in both main rooms of each floor. The New England background of its builder doubtless accounts for this common architectural feature of the Northeast. Full-width porches cover the front and rear, the latter of which retains its wheatsheaf design balustrade. Heart pine floors and a sunburst mantel design continue to distinguish the interior.

Alonzo Church, a Vermont native and a graduate of Middlebury College, came to Athens in November 1819 as a professor in the Mathematics Department of the university. Upon his arrival, Church began construction of a home to the northeast of the Franklin College campus. But President Moses Waddel persuaded Church to exchange houses with him, so Church never occupied the house that bears his name, the Church-Waddel-Brumby House. After Church succeeded Waddel as president in l829, he built Homewood around 1830 as a summer residence on his farm just south of the city limits. Following Church's death, the building served as a hospital and morgue during the Civil War. The house subsequently fell into disrepair, and the surrounding land was subdivided. In 1985 John Barrow, a great-great-great-grandson of Alonzo Church, acquired and restored Homewood, Athens' oldest in situ residence.

Homewood is locally designated as a Historic Landmark (January 8, 1991).