Ennis has several classical houses built immediately west and north of downtown during the first decades of the twentieth century, an era of prosperity fueled by the railroads and a cotton-based economy. Rafael, president of the First National Bank, commissioned this two-story, wooden house on a prominent corner site west of the business district. The symmetrical and balanced facade features a two-level portico with two pairs of fluted Ionic columns and a one-level gallery on Ionic columns passing behind.
Nearby, Hix McCanless designed a house (1908; 307 N. Sherman Street) for Ennis retailer Pearl Matthews with a gabled roof pediment over the entrance portico of tall Ionic columns and paired small Ionic columns on the one-story gallery. A more elaborate classical house was built for H. T. Moore (1905; 400 W. Denton Street). Here, the paired columns at the entrance bay are Doric, and the front porch extends back for three bays on each side of the house, increasing its visual width. A roofline balustrade with urns and elaborate brackets is under the deep second-story roof eave.