One of George F. Barber's mail-order-plan houses that are found across the nation, this large house is one of the expensive “Classical Colonial” models that Barber and his associate Thomas A. Kluttz custom-designed for their clients in the early twentieth century. It shows Barber reluctantly leaving behind his picturesque Queen Anne designs and producing plans for intimidating classical mansions of massive proportions. The buff-colored brick house has two huge porticos. On the facade, the two-story portico is supported by four Ionic columns below a heavy modillion entablature crowned with a balustrade. The imposing semicircular portico on the side of the house was one of the era's popular forms. The turn of the twentieth century was a prosperous time for Emporia, and the town's Queen Anne and Colonial Revival buildings clearly reflect the wealth and optimism of the moment.