Built for Tyler merchant John Douglas and his wife, Ketura, the two-story Second Empire house is the oldest and most distinguished survivor from an upper-middle-class neighborhood that developed southeast of the town square between 1870 and 1930. The neighborhood originally consisted of substantial wooden residences located on similar large tracts, which were gradually subdivided into smaller lots after the turn of the twentieth century. The house was enlarged several times during the Douglases’ ownership, until it achieved its current configuration in 1912. The original dwelling consisted of the central three-story tower and the two-story wing to the north. A one-story wing south of the tower was added by 1884, with the second story and porches in place by 1907. Influenced by pattern books and constructed of mass-produced building materials, the house blends Italianate elements with the mansard roof of the Second Empire style.