Joe Willis, president of Fidelity Trust Co. and cashier of Continental Bank and Trust Co., purchased property fronting on River Crest Country Club in 1911. Records are unclear regarding the construction date of the house; the 1914 directory listing of Willis’s residence as Arlington Heights indicates that the house probably was constructed prior to that date. The two-story Period Revival house is composed as a major gabled mass, placed gable end to the street, with subsidiary cross-gabled wings projecting to the north and south. Clad in stucco, the main mass features half-timbering in the gable end. A large hipped wing at the rear appears to be of construction. An early photograph of the house shows that the roof was originally clad in shingles and the half-timbering painted a dark color, making the Tudor Revival style of the house readily apparent. A later owner covered the roof in a glazed green shingle tile. The roofing material and white exterior paint alter the house’s character.
