Grey and his wife moved to California so he could work on screenplays in 1918, but Lackawaxen and the house remained one of his favorite places for the rest of his life.

The grassy, maintained ground slopes gently from Pennsylvania Route 590 to the west toward the river, giving the house's east (front) a view across to undeveloped woods on the New York side in Minisink Ford.

The newer wing designed by Grey and built by his brother has a rectangular hipped roof of gentler pitch with three small jerkined dormers.

Both roofs are surfaced with diamond-shaped shingles of white asbestos cement and pierced by a single brick chimney per wing.

Opposite the original front door at the southeast corner is a brick fireplace trimmed with unglazed terra cotta, including egg-and-dart molding.

Behind it the library includes many original trim, particularly a 2-foot-4-inch (0.71 m) deep painted frieze depicting kachina dolls, reflecting Grey's interests in the Southwest.

[2] A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Grey had established a dental practice in New York City in 1896 but soon grew dissatisfied with the field.

They had begun the process of building the first part of the house, the southern wing, after seeing the site on a fishing trip that year, and later they moved their families into it.

He and his wife moved to Altadena, California, where they eventually purchased an estate as he became even more commercially successful as a film producer as well.