The Lou Ellen Parmelee house is a two-story wood-framed Queen Anne-style residence constructed in 1896. It is irregular in plan, resting on a concrete foundation. Its raised basement is a full story high along the sloping rear elevation. The complex intersecting hip and gable roof is covered in a composition shingle. The house's fenestration is irregular with single and paired 1/1 double-hung wood sash windows. The decorative vocabulary of spindle work and applied sawn trim is typical of the Queen Anne mode.

Several rooms and hallways in the Lou Ellen Parmelee house have ornamented ceilings, including cornices, medallions, and coffers. According to San Francisco preservation plastering contractor Michael Casey, the Parmelee house is noteworthy for its plaster decoration's quantity and quality. The dining room ceiling is typical of the decorative work. The cornice is done in a scalloped shell motif above an egg-and-dart band ribbon. Plain run moldings form raised geometric patterns on the ceiling proper. Several ceiling rosettes about the building are rare, including one in the dining room. The unusually ornate fleur-de-Us coffered ceiling in the main parlor is of special interest. This feature is particularly elaborate, having been made up entirely of precast elements. Even the cornice molding is entirely of precast components. The design itself is composed of several small pieces of plaster. Each coffer is made up of almost 30 distinct plaster pieces that were separately applied, not including the 80 dime-sized rosettes that were used to finish each coffer. The work is attributed to Monterey plastering contractor George A. Ingram, a Parmelee neighbor who lived on Archer Street during construction in 1896.

The interior wood finishes, doors, door frames, window casings, and especially the main hall staircase with its ornate newel post and heavy spindle work balusters, remain as constructed in 1896 and are excellent examples of late Victorian interior woodwork. Despite minor changes to the exterior and the 1946 addition at the rear of the house, the Lou Ellen Parmelee house retains its late Victorian exterior and interior finishes to a remarkable degree.