Niven's bracketed style of roof shown predates Downing's, but the latter architect received credit through his publication of Cottage Residences (1842) by a few months.

[2] This uniqueness places an emphasis on his personal ties, and he selected more Italianate features: arched windows, a hipped roof, horizontal lines.

These choices make the house of the first Italianate villas in America, John Notman, a Philadelphia architect, being the first to experiment with the style in 1837.

[2] Originally, the stucco had scores to resemble ashlar,[2] and Niven inlaid the veranda with black and white marble tiles, which still exist.

Notman's design for the Nathan Dunn residence in Mount Holly, New Jersey contains a kitchen wing in the style Niven favored for his, used by Downing in A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening (1841).