Built by businessman John Wesley Mann in the local pink brick, the house marks the arrival in Waco of an eclectic Italianate, displacing the long-favored Greek Revival. The interior of the L-plan house is distinguished by a continuous, double gallery, complemented by the vertical mass of the mansard-roofed tower. Stripling credited the Italianate preference to Mann's wife, Cemira, a native of Poughkeepsie, New York, where the style had been favored since the 1850s. In addition to being a director in the First National Bank, Mann owned the brick kilns that provided material for the suspension bridge (
WT16) and many other local structures.