[2][4] Thomas T. Gaff was a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in the distillery and heavy machinery business in Cincinnati, Ohio.

[5] After Gaff was appointed as a commissioner to the Panama Canal's construction by then-United States Secretary of War William Howard Taft, he and his wife Zaidee moved to Washington, D.C.

[6] Jules Henri de Sibour was a prominent architect of large homes in Washington, D.C., including the Clarence Moore House, Andrew Mellon Building, and the ambassador residences of Portugal, France, and Luxembourg.

[6] Gaff instructed the designers to include novel conveniences such as a hot-air system to dry clothes, a trapdoor to his icehouse so that deliveries could be made directly from the street, and cork insulation for his wine cellar.

The main hall and dining room are lined with wooden paneling, Elizabethan wainscoting, and a sideboard that was originally used in an Italian monastery.

The reception hall, which at one time doubled as a living room, contains a wooden stair rail with baroque scrollwork and walls that are covered with Louis XIII-style oak panelling.