The house was commissioned by Mary Foote Henderson who led the movement to make Sixteenth Street NW and the Meridian Hill area of Washington and enclave of mansions and embassies.

George Oakley Totten Jr., who was known as Washington's leading Beaux-Arts architect, designed this house in the Tudor Revival style.

The exterior features a scored stucco façade which is reminiscent of an English manor house.

The front sports a large arched entrance portal and the building has panels of casement windows and cast stone quatrefoil ornamentation.

The interior features a large central staircase, salons, ballroom, and a dining hall that is ornamented in the Tudor classical style.