According to Heather Fearnbach, dentist J. Raymond Oliver and his wife Ruth met W. Edward Jenkins through their friends, the Gadsons, and commissioned him to design a modernist home for them. They showed him some ideas from architectural publications and initially wanted a one-story residence; Jenkins encouraged them to consider a plan that took advantage of the slope of the lot. The modernist house makes extensive use of Tennessee crab orchard stone. It stands in Monticello Park, a suburban neighborhood developed in the 1950s and 1960s that became home to many of Winston-Salem’s African American professionals and their families.