The exterior of the Nickerson House is an exercise in restraint, reminiscent of the elegant yet severe Italianate buildings of German neoclassicist Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841). The three-story mansion was built in the manner of an Italian palazzo. The architectural vocabulary of the Italian Renaissance served the nouveaux riches of late 19th-century America well. In search of an historical precedent the new class of wealthy Gilded Age entrepreneurs looked back to the enlightened mercantile republics of Renaissance Italy. The palazzo mode, inspired by the urban palaces of 15th-century Italy, was symbolic of the power, prestige, and cultural achievements of the merchant princes who had dominated Renaissance society.