This house represents Niernsee and Neilson’s initial foray into the use of the Italianate, newly emerged on the Baltimore scene. Built for tobacco merchant Decatur Miller, its design was inspired by the Italian palazzo to include a piano nobile plan with the principal entertaining rooms elevated above a rusticated ground floor resembling the recently completed Waverley Terrace. The house was among the first in the city to embrace cast-iron details, manufactured by Bartlett, Hayward and Company, as well as the use of a full brownstone facade. Brownstone then appeared in other fashionable houses, including two additional palazzos by Niernsee and Neilson (1855; 10–12 E. Monument Street).