John W. Gates persuaded DeKalb, Illinois, barbed wire manufacturer Isaac L. Ellwood to build a winter cottage next to the substantial Colonial Revival house that Gates erected on Lakeshore Drive (demolished in 1960). Both houses were designed by Chicago architect George C. Nimmons. Ellwood shortly sold his house, which was eventually acquired by George M. Craig, chief executive of the Port Arthur Townsite and Land Company and local banker. The U-plan, pink stucco–faced, tile-roofed house, organized around an interior peristyle, is now open to the public as a historical house museum. The Pompeian Villa faces the undulating corniche of Lakeshore Drive, along with other substantial houses built in the early twentieth century.