Unusual for Baltimore, this striking brick building was erected for the noted Furness Withy and Company steamship enterprise of Great Britain, drawing from the Adamesque architectural tradition native to that country. It was designed by local architect Glidden, known for upscale commercial structures and apartment buildings. Furness House displays refined classically inspired design beginning with an understated limestone-faced ground level with a recessed entrance flanked by tripartite windows. The principal rooms above are manifested on the exterior by an elaborate central pavilion framed by fluted limestone pilasters, dentiled pediment, and a grand Palladian window. Appearing in The American Architect in February 1919, Furness House reflects the importance of Baltimore to the international shipping trade of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.