“AH 1822” in glazed bricks on an end gable commemorates the first owner, Anthony Higgins. His grandson, John Clark Higgins, founded Wilmington's Vulcanized Fiber Company and served as President William McKinley's consul in Scotland. Here, at Fairview, the gentleman farmer bred Guernsey cattle. Frank Furness enlarged the house for him, adding a third floor in his inimitable manner without regard for the clash of styles. The effect is bizarre, the Queen Anne additions with fish-scale shingled siding, wide eaves, and swelling chimneytops sitting like a fancy hat on top of the sober old Federal walls. Higgins may have preserved these walls, though outmoded, in homage to his grandfather.