Signature elements of the style include asymmetrical massing, a roof shaped to resemble thatch, a gable with half-timbered facade, a king post truss ceiling, diamond-shaped casement windows, decorative as well as functional wrought iron, and even a tiny window in the chimney.

The basement floor of acid-stained decorative concrete is also a rare surviving example of a technique pioneered by Robert D. Lammens during the 1920s.

In 1920 he married Dean Spry and they lived in Kāneʻohe, where he managed a pineapple farm.

The family also started a business to promote musical concerts, Artists' Services of Honolulu, which between the 1930s and early 1960s brought famous talents to perform in Honolulu, including Yehudi Menuhin, Arthur Rubenstein, and the Vienna Boys Choir.

After the death of their daughter, Nancy Oakley Hedemann, in 2010,[2] the house was put on the market, with a list price of $1.2 million.