Situated on a sloping 1.79-acre parcel in the Highlands, one of Madison’s smallest up-scale suburbs, the highly intact Philip H. and Margaret Gray, Jr. House was the largest and one of the finest Wrightian Style houses to have been built on the west side of the city of Madison when it was constructed in 1940.

Philip H. Gray, Jr. was at the beginning of his career as a professor of English literature when his new house was built. The house was designed by William V. Kaeser, a Madison architect who was also at the beginning of his own career and is now considered to have been one of the best of Madison’s mid-century architects. The irregular plan house that Kaeser designed for the Grays is clad in brick and it is positioned on high ground towards the rear of its parcel, which gives it panoramic views in three directions from the large picture windows and groups of windows that are found on all of the house’s elevations. The Gray house has 5,500 square feet of living space spread over two stories and contains a two-story entrance hall, a large living room, an equally large playroom, a study, a large kitchen and pantry, six bedrooms, and two maid’s rooms and their separate dining area. In addition, the house rests on a full 2,400-square-foot partially exposed basement story that houses two separate two-car garages besides a number of service-related rooms. The house is one of the most impressive and is by far the largest Wrightian style house built in Madison in the years prior to World War II and it is one of Kaeser’s early masterworks.

The Gray House is a private home and is not open to the public.