He was valedictorian of the class of 1906, won the Arthur Spayd Brooke Memorial Prize (gold medal) and got a Bachelor of Science in Architecture.

[10] In August that year, Ellett boarded the steamship Merion, leaving Philadelphia for Europe where he stayed until 1909, mostly at the American Academy in Rome.

[13] Ellett worked for several years at the firms of McKim, Mead & White and Benjamin Wistar Morris[14] before establishing his own practice.

[16][17] Her brother, Captain Braxton Bigelow of the British Royal Engineers, had been killed in action in France just a few weeks earlier, on July 23, 1917.

"[19] On November 11, 1918, at the war's end, Ellett was cited for bravery, and in February 1919 an Iowa newspaper reported: "Captain Harlan Ellett, formerly of Red Oak...who has been serving in the army in France has been called to Paris to act in the capacity of architect on the peace committee.

"[20] In April 1919, the regiment returned home and later that year Ellett co-authored a volume of the 302nd Engineer's activities during the war.

In 1926, he completed Merriewold, a grand house on River Road, Highland Park, New Jersey, built for J. Seward Johnson.

The slate is the same as is used in many of the Oxford colleges of England, and is not to be found in this country," and "The main stairway, of spiral design, is copied after one in the old Philadelphia City Hall," and "The key to the house weighs two pounds.