Second Empire style

The Graham house had always been a showplace in the town of Independence.

Built in 1840 by John's grandfather, Robert Graham, the eccentric son of Colonel John Graham of Revolutionary fame, it was a curious mixture of colonial and French architecture.

The French touches were tributes to the Huguenot ancestry of his grandmother.

The building crowned the summit of a hill and was surrounded by 25 acres of trees of native growth beneath which wound labyrinths of walks hedged by boxwood.

Its shape was a huge red brick rectangle, three and a half stories in height, with mansard roof broken by quaint projecting French windows.

On three sides, porches had been added, their roof supported by small white colonial columns.

The front door of pure colonial pattern opened directly into a great hall of baronial dimensions at the back of which a circular stairway wound along the curved wall.

It will be so jolly.