This large double house epitomizes the height of refinement of its type. It also bears a striking resemblance to 3 and 4 Gramercy Park W. in New York City, an 1840s double house attributed to Alexander Jackson Davis, which Norris is likely to have known. In both cases, a pair of wide sandstone stairs carry visitors a full story up and across an iron-fenced garden to high front stoops. Lacy wire ironwork (by J. B. Wickersham) simultaneously ornaments and obscures the private realm behind the covered balconies and porches. The houses were built for Rogers, a Presbyterian minister who had inherited a fortune. He lived in the southern unit with his family and fourteen slaves, while his daughter lived in the northern house with her husband, Dr. Joseph West.