According to Lee Craig in Josephus Daniels: His Life and Times, in 1920 Josephus Daniels, then Secretary of the Navy, wrote to his son, Josephus, Jr., that Lincoln Rogers, a Navy commander who was also a “good architect,” had been advising Mrs. (Addie) Daniels, about “the house she is going to build out on the hill-top.” He asked Joe, Jr. to take Raleigh developer Dan Allen and architect Rogers to visit the site during an upcoming visit by Rogers. The degree of Rogers’s role in the design is unknown. Satterfield is cited as “architect” and builder of the large stone residence with its imposing portico. Satterfield claimed only the role of builder, but in this instance as in others he may have helped the client develop plans from the initial concept. The family moved into the new house in 1923.