This was Wright’s first Delavan Lake project. He gave Wallis a Prairie Style summer cottage, complete with a low-pitched roof, wide eaves, and strong horizontality. Wright created a horizontal ribbon effect by laying horizontal, green-stained board-and-batten on the first story, wrapping dark green wooden bands around the stucco-clad second story, and running a dark green fascia along the eaves. The stairwell tower extends from the east facade like a prow. A polygonal bay, housing the dining room and an upstairs bedroom, projects from the building’s west side. Inside, the first story’s open floor plan centers on a Roman brick fireplace, a favorite Wright device.
While his house was under construction, Wallis’s only child died, so he sold the retreat. The buyers—the Goodsmiths—were twin brothers who married twin sisters. Because the house was too small for a foursome, the Goodsmiths had Wallis make several additions as a condition of the sale. Wallis added a bedroom upstairs and enlarged the living room downstairs, enclosing the east-facing terrace and the lake-facing porch to create one big room running across the entire front (north) facade. He also added a hipped-roofed entrance porch next to the stairwell tower and an exterior staircase leading to the enclosed front porch. It is unclear whether Wright took part in these alterations, but they were executed with great sympathy to the original design.