From the National Register application:
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"The Isaac O. Pickering House is a towered Italianate villa with an ell plan. It is a two-story frame structure with a rough-pitched stone foundation. The square tower above the main entrance, which faces north, has pairs of arched windows in each wall. There is a one-story porch across the front which ends in a circular domed pavilion.
The east wing of the house ends in a polygonal bay. A second story porch is superimposed over the first story porch on the southeast corner of the house. A brick chimney is located slightly east and south of the center of the building. An intersecting hip roof covered in asphalt shingles caps the structure.
Paired brackets accent the cornice line. Floor length arched windows with shutters open on the front porch. Both front and rear porches have turned posts, and the front porch is ornamented with Eastlake decoration.
Inside the house a number of surviving historic features include fireplaces and mantels, a curving stairway, wainscoting, moldings, and doors."
Information on Isaac Pickering from William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas as listed in the Kansas Collection Books website:
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"ISAAC O. PICKERING, attorney at law, was born in Freeport, Harrison Co., Ohio, February 18, 1842, and was reared in Fulton County, Ill. He came to Kansas June 1, 1859 and farmed for a short time in Johnson County, and then in Woodson County. During the winter of 1860-61 he taught school at Winterset, Iowa. In November, 1861, he enlisted in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, Company F. In 1862 was promoted to Staff Sergeant, and in 1864 to First Lieutenant and although he held a regimental office was principally employed on the staff of Gen. Reynolds, serving in all four years. After the war he engaged in the mercantile business at Leavenworth, and at the same time carried on a livery business at Olathe, continuing both only a short time; he then engaged in the hotel business at Olathe in company with J. T. Weaver, following that until 1869, when he sold out and purchased 320 acres of land in Labette County and engaged in farming, losing in four years all he had accumulated heretofore. During 1867-68 and '69 Mr. P., in connection with his business pursuits also read law, and was admitted to the bar in Labette County at the District Court in February, 1872. In 1873 he returned to Olathe and was variously engaged until the session of the Legislature of 1875, when he was elected Assistant Chief Clerk of the House. At the expiration of his official term, he returned to Olathe and entered the law office of Gov. John P. St. John, with whom he is still associated. He is also engaged in farming, and is interested in mining enterprises in Colorado. He was elected attorney of the city of Olathe in the spring of 1878-79-80, and Mayor of the city in 1881 for a term of two years. Mr. Pickering is a member of the Executive Committee of the State Temperance Union."