With the pendulum of design swung to one of the two extremes prevalent in the Leavenworth House, the resultant structure would be of this massive, almost commercial type, a style which was indeed the one most used for business purposes and common to many of the structures following. This is the box house of John Q. Public enlarged in fitting proportion to the owner's purse, in this case Major Moses Burnet, a prospering agent of the Syracuse Land Company which owned most of downtown Syracuse, and an assemblyman who is reputed to have expended $20,000 in the construction of his mansion, one of the most pretentious homes west of Albany. Most active in forwarding the best interests of the city, Burnet was nominated and elected mayor in his absence but declined.

In comparison with the Leavenworth Mansion, there is little to distinguish this examples other than its tremendous bulk. Almost modern in its stripped plainness, the characteristic attic openings with their geometric grill work installed in the large entablature, the imposing. doorway and the typical sixpaned windows are the sole relief. With most of these features today gone, there is nothing left, although this house still stands as a landmark of the Revival in Syracuse - an indication that even those of wealth did not always desire extravagant colonnades. In mere amplification of the principles involved, the second structure finds its own personality in the tremendously larger cornice with dental mouldings just above the "stomach windows", steeper roof pitch, and elaborate porches and small side wing with stained glass window of later vintage.