The building is recognized as one of the finest, and least-altered examples of a large Italianate brick/brownstone home in the United States. Gustave Herter created the interiors in a range of styles, and this house is his earliest known and only intact commission. Due to donations by the Libby family, 97 percent of the original contents survive, including Herter furniture, elaborate wall paintings, artworks, carpets, gas lighting fixtures, stained glass, porcelain, silver, and glassware.[2] The house has twin sinks in the guest bedroom on the second floor, a Turkish smoking room, which is one of the first example of Islamic architecture in the United States, carved marble fireplaces and a flying staircase.[6] When designing the home, Morse had features incorporated into it which were familiar to him from his luxury hotels, including the large and tall entryway and wall-to-wall carpeting.[5] The house was remarkably advanced as well, and used some of the latest technologies of the era (some of which he also took from his hotels) with central heating, gas lighting, hot and cold running water, and a servant call system to name a few.[2] Additionally, as part of a new and unique design, the water for the house was provided by gutters in the tower and third floor, which ran down through pipes into all the rooms, with separate pipes for heated water, which was heated using coal, and another for cold water.[5]
