The Cranston-Geary Residence, designed by architect George Sellon, is an outstanding Craftsman Style residence. Its rustic image and massing with intersecting gables, deep overhanging eaves, projecting dormers, and shaped rafter tails is characteristic of the mode.

The tall slender windows with linear patterned lights, wood and brick materials, and wide canopied porches enhance the mood and character of the style, and also suggest Prairie School design. Japanese influences, an important component of Craftsman interpretation, are suggested by the distinctive downward curve of both gabled and shed roof forms at the eaves. The patterns in the leaded glass casement windows reflect a combination of Art Nouveau and Prairie School influences.

As State Architect, Sellon designed State Normal School at San Jose (now San Jose State), Agnews State Hospital and San Quentin Penitentiary.

Among his Sacramento buildings are: Sacramento Hotel, American Cash Store, Sacramento News Publishing, Hagelstein Building, Inverness Building, California State Fairgrounds Buildings, California Almond Growers Exchange, Sacramento County Hospital, Caleb Greenwood School, Dos Rios School, California Western States Life Building, Bank of America at 6th and K Streets, and Realty Exchange Building.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1997.