Westmoreland Place Historic District

Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT

   

The Westmoreland Place Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. Portions of the content on this web page were adapted from a copy of the original nomination document. [‡]

Description

The Westmoreland Place Historic District is a small residential neighborhood located on the East Bench of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah. It is located thirteen blocks south and fifteen blocks east of Salt Lake City's business center. Its sixty-nine primary structures are entirely residential. Single-family houses predominate but there are four duplexes scattered along the perimeter of the subdivision. Uniformly sized mature shade trees line the streets in the parking strips creating an urban canopy with their branches. Concrete curbs, gutters and sidewalks are found throughout the Westmoreland Place Historic District. The houses have uniform setbacks and the garages are primarily located at the rear of the lots. All of the houses in the Westmoreland Place Historic District were built in the period from 1913 to 1952; the majority in the then popular bungalow and period revival cottage styles. Westmoreland Place was designated a local historic district by Salt Lake City in 2010 and is protected by restrictive zoning ordinances.

Westmoreland Place Historic Place is a subdivision laid out in 1913 by the Dunshee brothers, Earl and C.O. Dunshee, using the then popular Craftsman style for bungalows, based on the houses designed by the architect brothers, Greene and Greene, on Westmoreland Place in Pasadena, California. Distinctive rock-faced granite ashlar "gatehouses" (or entrance structures) bracket the entrance to the district at the intersection of 1500 South and 1300 East Streets with the name of Westmoreland Place incised on a panel. The gatehouses and the grand entrance of Westmoreland Drive that runs diagonally from the northwest corner of the district between the pillars to the intersection of Fillmore Street and Sherman Avenue visually and physically differentiate the Westmoreland Place Historic District from the surrounding neighborhoods which are laid out in a grid pattern. Small triangular parks extend to the northwest next to the gatehouses and a circular grassy park area is maintained at the southeast corner of the intersection of 1500 East and 1300 South Streets.

The Westmoreland Place Historic District contains 69 primary resources, all built within the historic period. It retains a high degree of historic integrity as the majority (87%) of the resources, 60, contribute to the historic character of the district. There are 50 detached garages set to the rear of the lots with concrete driveways leading to the street and 35 of these are from the first several decades of the historic period. However, these are not being included in the resource count. In the original subdivision plat ten-foot-wide alleys were laid out but appear to have never been utilized. By the mid-century years garages were built under the houses on the slope along 1500 East Street or attached to the houses, occasionally with a patio on top. None of the structures in the Westmoreland Place Historic District is individually listed on the National Register.

The collector streets of 1300 South and 1500 East form the north and west boundaries of the district. The south boundary includes the houses on the north side of Harrison Avenue and roughly 1600 East on the eastern edge. The Westmoreland Place Historic District has the same boundaries as the Westmoreland Place subdivision platted in 1913. The Yalecrest Historic District [listed 2007] is located directly to the north. Westmoreland Drive enters the district at a diagonal, between the entrance pillars. The interior streets revert to the rectilinear grid pattern of the surrounding city street system. All of the streets in the Westmoreland Place Historic District are paved with curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Street lighting is provided by non-historic lamps comprised of plastic globes atop metal poles on concrete bases. The well-maintained established landscaping, uniform setbacks, mature shade trees, and uniform scale of the houses make this a visually cohesive neighborhood. The Westmoreland Place Historic District is known for its collection of Craftsman style bungalows and period revival cottages and remains a desirable address in Salt Lake City.

Architectural Styles, Types and Materials by Period

Exclusive Streetcar Subdivision (1913-1939)

A streetcar line ran along the western boundary of Westmoreland Place on 1500 East and provided rapid access to the downtown business center in 1913. The Dunshee brothers used the streetcars as a selling point in their newspaper advertisements for the subdivision, noting that a resident of Westmoreland Place could be downtown on the streetcar in eighteen minutes. The bungalows and period cottages from this era range from modest single-story vernacular cottages to high-style slightly larger one-and-a-half or two-story residences. Most are single-family houses but two duplexes date from the end of this period. Brick is the primary wall cladding with half-timbering and stucco found in the gable ends of the English Tudor examples. Many of the early California and airplane Bungalows are shingle-sided.

Of the fifty-one houses built during this initial era, twenty-three or thirty-eight percent are bungalows. They were the first houses to appear in Westmoreland Place and the Dunshee brothers built the majority of them. Bungalows were the most popular house type in Utah during the first decades of the twentieth century, at the time of the expansion of Salt Lake City onto the East Bench. The rectangular plans, low profiles with wide eaves and low-pitched roofs characterize the Westmoreland Place bungalows with styling variations from the Craftsman and Prairie School styles. The California and the airplane bungalow, two of the less common Craftsman subtypes and rarely seen in Utah, are found in Westmoreland Place. California Bungalows have open gable ends with distinctive exposed framing members. The airplane bungalow has a single small room with many windows on the second floor.

The Dunshees are responsible for many of the California Bungalows. A fine example of a Craftsman Bungalow in the unusual airplane variant is the house at 1347 South Filmore Street, built as a model home in 1914 and lived in by one of the developers of Westmoreland Place, Clark O. and Mary Dunshee. It has the characteristic style elements of a low-pitched roof, exposed framing elements, and ribbon windows or grouped casements. Its single room on the second floor also has ribbon windows. Battered cobble rock piers and a full-width open porch with exposed wooden structural elements distinguish the shingled Craftsman California Bungalow variant built by the other Dunshee brother, Earl, in 1913 at 1576 East Harrison Avenue. Earl Dunshee and his wife lived in the house. The Commonwealth Investment Company, a Dunshee brothers company, built the side-gabled stuccoed California example at 1363 South Filmore Street in 1917 for Charles and Lila Reeder, of the Mullett-Kelly department store. It has exposed rafters on the front-gabled open porch and simple square supports. C.O. Dunshee built the nearby shingle-sided bungalow at 1380 South Fillmore Street in 1916 with the projecting gabled porch and river rock battered piers capped by concrete coping. The ribbon windows light the facade. Another California 1915 bungalow with the distinctive open structural elements on the cross-gabled porch that rest on massive stuccoed piers is at 1347 South 1500 East Street.

Prairie School style bungalows were built at roughly the same time as the Craftsman bungalows. Their horizontal emphasis with broad overhanging eaves, low-pitched hip roofs, brick walls, casement windows, and prominent front porches is modeled on the early Midwestern work of Frank Lloyd Wright. The example at 1548 East 1300 South, built in 1916, has the characteristics of the style, including the cast stone coping for the porch knee wall and window sills. The Dunshees built the brick Simpson House in 1919 at 1525 Westmoreland Place. J.C. Sorensen constructed the Thomas Sorensen House at 1358 Glenmare Street in 1916 with the hip roof, wide eaves, ribbon windows and masonry construction typical of the style.

Clipped-gable cottages were common near the end of the bungalow era up to the late 1920s in Utah. There are four examples in Westmoreland Place Historic District. The striated brick clipped-gable cottage at 1365 Glenmare Street from 1924 has fluted columns supporting the open front porch and cornice returns. Another example with fluted columns supporting the clipped-gable porch roof is the brick house at 1562 East 1300 South.

Period revival cottages from the 1920s and 1930s in several styles constitute sixteen (or twenty-seven percent) of the contributing primary buildings in Westmoreland Place. The side-gabled English cottage style, period revival cottage at 1353 South Glenmare Street built by the architect George W. Welch for his own residence in 1922 has rolled shingles at the roof edges to imitate thatching, occasional single bricks in the stucco-clad wall surfaces, a tabbed door surround and prominent chimney. A round-arched door, ribbon windows and a gabled entrance bay with faux half-timbering at the peak characterize the English Tudor style brick period cottage built in 1931 by the builder S.E. Mulcock at 1538 Harrison Avenue. The 1930 cottage at 1543 Sherman Avenue is clad with a variety of materials. It has two front-facing gables, faux half-timbering, an arched door opening, tabbed door surround and variegated fieldstone and stucco cladding.

Colonial Revival styling was very popular for residential architecture in Salt Lake City, in addition to its use for religious, commercial and institutional buildings. There are seven examples of it in the Westmoreland Place Historic District. The wooden-shingled side-gabled 1921 house at 1551 Sherman Avenue has a symmetrical facade and gabled entry porch supported by square columns with a curved underside. The locally prominent architectural firm of Woolley and Evans designed the two-story brick house at 1353 Filmore Street for the dentist, J. Leo Shepard, in 1922. It has many elements of the style including a broken pediment over the door, keystones on the first floor windows, multiple light sashes, and a symmetrical facade. One of the two duplexes built by R. Anderson in 1939 at 1337/1341 South 1500 East has a symmetrical facade, non-operational shutters, low-pitched hipped roof, and pedimented window heads, wall dormers and paired enclosed entrance porches.

World War II and Mid-century Infill (1940-1952)

The subdivision was built out in the years just before and after World War II. A total of nine houses, or fifteen percent, in Westmoreland Place were built during this era; four in the 1940s and five in the 1950s. Minimal traditional styling is found on eight single-family houses as well as two duplexes. Many from this era were built in the few remaining empty lots on the streets on the perimeter of the subdivision. The minimal traditional style has little ornament, medium-pitched gable roofs with close eaves and the entrance typically set asymmetrically on the facade. The World War II cottage is the most frequent form for single-family minimal traditional style houses. The 1950 duplex at 1373/1375 South 1500 East Street is symmetrical with garages on the first floor on the front-facing gabled bay. The last house built in Westmoreland Place Historic District is a minimal traditional World War II-era cottage with an inset porch under the main hipped roof constructed in 1952 at 1546 Harrison Avenue.

Out of period (1953-2010)

No buildings were constructed in the Westmoreland Place Historic District during this period, but alterations and additions have been made to the existing houses. Most changes appear to be construction to acquire additional living space; three added second floors to bungalows. The example at 1374 Fillmore Street is a camelback, adding a synthetic stucco-sided second floor to the rear of a brick bungalow. The Dunshee California bungalow at 1564 Harrison Avenue is shingled with a shingled second floor addition. The late modern-looking house at 1361 Glenmare Street is an update of the original house built in 1945.

Summary

The compact Westmoreland Place Historic District contains one of the best collections of intact Craftsman Bungalows in Salt Lake City. It is also enhanced with contemporary examples of Prairie School style bungalows, various types of period revival cottages and World War II cottages, providing a variety of early to mid-twentieth century building styles and types. The styles reflect the historic periods covered during the building period of the district, although the area is most renowned for its bungalows, particularly those of the Dunshee brothers. The neighborhood is visually cohesive with mature street trees, uniform setbacks, and well-maintained landscaping. All of the residences in the Westmoreland Place Historic District were built during a forty-year period in the historic era and the majority retains their historic integrity. The examples with modern changes and/or additions that no longer retain their historic integrity still have the scale and massing that fit with the rest of the district and do not detract from the overall integrity of the Westmoreland Place Historic District. In addition to the work of the Dunshees, a variety of local builders were involved in the construction of the houses in the district. They range from local carpenters and masons like Alex Brown to the renowned architectural firm of Evans and Woolley. All of the construction by the various builders retains the high standards for design, landscaping and materials set by the Dunshees.

Significance

The Westmoreland Place Historic District is locally significant for its association with the planning and development of the residential East Bench of Salt Lake City in the streetcar era and its intact collection of early twentieth century housing, particularly Craftsman Bungalows. It is locally historically significant as an example of a designed subdivision built on a streetcar line on the East Bench by out-of-state developers or land merchants, Earl and Clark Dunshee, who were drawn to Salt Lake City by its tremendous growth at the turn of the twentieth century. It was planned as an exclusive subdivision restricted to more affluent buyers and marketed through newspaper advertising. All aspects of the neighborhood were planned and executed by the Dunshees from the sidewalks, curbs, gutters, and trees, to the grand entrance through stone gate houses with grass-covered park areas on either side. The marketing was successful and Westmoreland Place residents were prominent citizens of Salt Lake City.

The Westmoreland Place Historic District is also significant for its well-preserved collection of early-to-mid-twentieth century housing types. It is unique in Salt Lake City for its intact assortment of Craftsman Bungalows, including examples of the uncommon-to-Utah subtypes, the airplane bungalow and a variety of California Bungalows. It is known primarily for the Craftsman Bungalows built by the Dunshees, complemented with period revival cottages and WW II-era cottages, contributed by other local builders. It remains one of the most intact collections of architecturally significant bungalows and period cottages in the Salt Lake City. Because the development of the subdivision occurred over a short period of time, less than forty years, the area is visually cohesive. The setbacks are uniform, and the house types are compatible in terms of massing and scale. The Westmoreland Place Historic District contributes significantly to the historic resources of Salt Lake City.

After statehood for Utah was obtained in 1896, the population of Salt Lake City almost doubled from 1900 to 1910.[1] Expansion of its residential areas began on the east bench of the valley, to the southeast of the already settled city area. Beyond the sharp rise that flattens out along 1300 East Street, the East Bench offered fresh air and mountain views, above the coal-smoke-filled air of the city. Real estate developers platted the land and vigorously promoted the new subdivisions. Streetcars brought the residents of the new southeast areas of the city to jobs and shopping in the downtown area. Residents could get from Westmoreland Place to the business center in eighteen minutes[2] on the streetcar line that ran along 1500 East Street.

Earl and Clark O. Dunshee filed the plat for the Westmoreland Place subdivision in May of 1913. The Dunshee brothers moved to Salt Lake City from Iowa with their parents in the late nineteenth century. They both worked in the newspaper business for the Salt Lake Herald in Salt Lake City before they began their career as real estate developers. Clark was the chief editor of the paper and Earl was the circulation manager. Earl Dunshee was known for having built the first restricted residential area in Salt Lake City, Westminster Heights, also on the East Bench.[3]

The Dunshee brothers acted as realtors, selling lots through their Commonwealth Investment Company, with Clark O. Dunshee as secretary of the company. Both had offices in prominent office buildings in Salt Lake City; Earl Dunshee in the Walker Bank Building and C.O. in the Newhouse Building.[4] Their frequent newspaper advertisements noted that they wanted to attract "a better class" of owners and that no lot was more than one block from the streetcar line. Westmoreland Place was to be a restricted residential neighborhood in that lots could only be sold to Caucasians, and buyers must spend at least $3,000 on their residence. That price ensured that only the more affluent could afford to buy and build in the subdivision. Only single, unattached, residential dwellings could be constructed on the lots and these must be set back twenty-five feet from the front property line.[5] The subdivision was advertised as "The Tract With the Beautiful Entrance"[6] referring to the stone pillars at the entrance on the southeast corner of 1500 East and 1300 South Streets. The two tiny[7] triangular parks that flank the diagonal entrance to Westmoreland Drive are found on the original plat map. Tennis courts were planned and advertised but never executed.

Another pair of brothers, Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, influenced the Dunshee brothers in their architectural choices in Westmoreland Place. The Greene brothers practiced architecture in Pasadena, California, from 1893 to 1914, and are considered to have inspired the Craftsmen style trends in the United States. They built high style custom Craftsman residences that showcased the beauty of fine woods and stone intended for specific sites in Southern California. One of their most renowned works is the 1908 Gamble House located on Westmoreland Place in Pasadena, California. Greene and Greene designed the interiors as well, frequently including the furniture. Their designs received extensive publicity in popular shelter magazines of the time such as Ladies Home Journal, Architectural Record, House Beautiful, and Western Architect, and began to affect residential designs across the country. The Craftsman Magazine, published by Gustav Stickley from 1901-1917, specialized in the style. Presumably, the name chosen by the Dunshees for the subdivision was a reference to the Greene and Greene work in Pasadena on Westmoreland Place.

The Dunshee-built houses date only from the first decade of the subdivision as the Dunshee brothers left Salt Lake City for Los Angeles in 1922 and other builders completed the build-out of the subdivision. The economic boom of the late 1920s brought more residential construction in Salt Lake City, particularly on the East Bench. A variety of period cottages and late bungalows were built in the city and Westmoreland Place during this time.

The years just before and after World War II brought many workers to the Salt Lake valley for the war industries and created a great need for housing. All of the vacant lots in Westmoreland Place were built out, including four duplexes, towards the end of the historic period. The last house in Westmoreland Place was built in 1952.

Architecture

Bungalows were the most popular house type in Utah and the western United States for single-family homes in the first quarter of the 20th century. They were the first houses to appear in Westmoreland Place. Bungalows are usually one or one-and-a-half story with an interior open design, low-pitched roofs and wide overhanging eaves. They frequently have casement windows and a dormer on the front slope of the roof. Broad porches and verandas unite the houses with their building sites. The two primary bungalow styles found in Westmoreland Place are the Craftsman and the vernacular Prairie School.

The Craftsman style, especially as seen in the work of Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene in southern California, combines elements of the British Arts and Crafts movement with Oriental wooden architecture. Greene and Greene were brothers who practiced architecture in Pasadena from 1893 to 1914. Their high-style fully-designed houses were publicized in the shelter magazines of the time including Ladies Home Journal, Architectural Record, House Beautiful and Good Housekeeping. Floor plans and pattern books helped to popularize the style. Frequently the interiors featured fine woods and built-in cabinets and bookcases. The houses were clad in wooden shingles or clapboard. The Dunshee brothers featured the Craftsman style in their bungalow designs and appear to have taken design elements for the Salt Lake City Westmoreland Place Historic District from the street of the same name in Pasadena. The Greene and Greene masterpiece of Craftsman architecture, the Gamble House, is located on Westmoreland Place in Pasadena.

Two varieties of Craftsman Bungalows found in the Westmoreland Place Historic District, the California and the airplane bungalow, are infrequently seen elsewhere in Utah. The California bungalow is usually shingle-sided but there are also brick and stucco-clad examples. The major characteristic is the front-facing open gable end over the front porch. It has exposed squared framing elements; rafters, purlins, ridge beams and brackets. The single airplane bungalow has the characteristic small room on the second floor with windows on all four sides. The name is thought to come from either the panoramic view possible from the second floor, like that from an airplane, or the resemblance of the single small room on the second floor over to the cockpit of an early twentieth century airplane.

Prairie School style bungalows are typically brick with smooth wall surfaces, low-pitched hipped roofs and wide eaves. The horizontal lines are emphasized, particularly in the cast stone or concrete coping above the knee walls of the front porches and the window sills. The style is roughly derived from the early Midwestern work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Two renowned Utah architects, Clifford Percy Evans and Taylor Woolley, both served as apprentices to Frank Lloyd Wright in his Oak Park studio, and returned to practice together in Utah. They are credited with helping to spread the Prairie School style throughout Utah. One of their designs is in the Westmoreland Place Historic District.

Historically based period revival styling was popular in Utah from the Victorian era through the 1930s. Steeply pitched roofs, asymmetric massing and the decorative use of various cladding materials are characteristic of the style which refers back to earlier periods in the popular English Cottage or English Tudor variants frequently used for residential construction. Their surge in popularity in the 1920s is often attributed to the U.S. soldiers returning from World War I who were exposed to the vernacular French and English historic architectural styles in Europe. They both refer back to vernacular medieval English houses. English Cottage and English Tudor style houses share many characteristics and are frequently distinguished by the faux half-timbering on the English Tudor examples. Both cottage styles are frequently brick. A number of the period revival cottages were constructed by builders also active elsewhere on the East Bench in Salt Lake City. Decorative features refer back to earlier architectural styles with shorthand elements like panels of half-timbering in gable ends to denote the English Tudor style, smooth wall surfaces and round arches for the simple English cottage and classical motifs for Colonial Revival. These were particularly fashionable in the years between the World Wars.

Minimal traditional styles are found in the late 1930s through the 1950s in Utah and use simplified Colonial Revival style elements. Chronologically as well as stylistically, they are between the period revival cottages and more modern styles and types. They have medium pitched gable roofs, close eaves, and are usually asymmetric in shape. The entry door frequently has simple columns or pilasters.

Architects and Builders

Builders and land developers frequently moved into the houses they were building in the heavily advertised subdivisions on the east side of Salt Lake City. Earl and Clark Dunshee platted the subdivision, promoted it, and built almost one quarter of its houses. They are by far the most prolific builders in the subdivision. Both brothers lived in Westmoreland Place with their wives. By the time they left for California in 1922, thirty houses had been completed. Other builders completed the rest of Westmoreland Place over the next thirty years.

The Ryberg brothers, William E. and Eric, were involved in much of the early construction in Westmoreland Place and were the major contractors for the Dunshees. Their company, Ryberg Brother Contractors of Logan, was formed in 1912. Eric Ryberg lived in 1374 Glenmare Street and after 1922 in 1344 Filmore Street. William Ryberg lived at 1366 Glenmare Street with his wife, Marie. The brothers were next-door neighbors on Glenmare Street, sharing a driveway. They teamed as Ryberg and Sorenson to build 1540 Westmoreland Drive in 1932. J.C. Sorenson built the bungalow at 1358 Glenmare Street.

Taylor Woolley and Clifford Evans were principals at the Miller, Woolley and Evans architectural firm in Salt Lake City in 1922. Taylor A. Woolley apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright at his studio in Oak Park and also in Fiesole, Italy, working on the Wasmuth Portfolio. Taylor Woolley is credited with the popularization of the Prairie School style in Utah and also served as State Architect. He worked in the Prairie School style as well as later in the Colonial Revival style. The 1922 Colonial Revival style house at 1353 Filmore Street that they designed is an early example of the style in the area.

George W. Welch built and lived in his own house in Westmoreland Place. He and his partner, Carl W. Scott, formed the Salt Lake City-based architectural firm of Scott and Welch. In the 1920s they designed Copperton, a new company town for the Utah Copper Company on the southwest side of the Salt Lake valley. They are also known for their work designing schools, libraries and other public buildings across Utah with the New Deal W.P.A. program.

A number of builders and contractors were also active in the Yalecrest neighborhood to the north. In 1928 several builders constructed English Tudor houses. Olof Nilson, contractor, built 1371 Filmore Street; George A. Bowles and Son, 1554 Harrison Avenue, and R.B. Amundson, 1347 Glenmare Street. Sidney E. Mulcock in 1931-2 constructed two neighboring English Tudor style houses at 1532 and 1538 Harrison Avenue. Herrick and Company built 1552 East 1300 South Street in 1951. N.L. Herrick was a partner in the Gaddis Investment Company as well as an individual builder. Herrick and Company provided design as well as construction services.

Several builders have a single house in Westmoreland Place. R.J. Chamberlain in 1914 built 1520 Harrison Avenue. Newman Building built 1548 East 1300 South Street in 1916. Edward Wallace did 1551 Sherman Avenue in 1921. In 1936 Capitol Home Builders built 1576 East 1300 South Street and Alex Brown, a Salt Lake City carpenter, constructed the English Tudor style house at 1360 Filmore Street. R. Anderson built 1337 South 1500 East Street in 1937.

Early Owners/Residents

The subdivision was actively marketed to relatively affluent buyers including business people, managers and professionals. A number of the early owners and residents of Westmoreland Place were managers and owners of retail establishments in downtown Salt Lake City. Charles Reeder, secretary-treasurer of the Mullett-Kelly Company department store lived with his wife, Lila, at 1363 Filmore Street. Samuel and Carrie Ashby lived at 1370 Filmore Street from 1922 to 1951 during which time Samuel worked as a salesman and a buyer at the Paris department store. Another buyer from the Paris, Samuel Ashby, bought the 1922 Prairie School style bungalow 1374 Filmore Street, in 1942. Henry Segil was manager of "the Mode," a women's clothing shop, when he lived with his wife, Julia, in the Dunshee bungalow at 1347 Filmore Street. David Tandowski and his wife, Lena Marks, bought the bungalow at 1344 Glenmare Street in 1917. Tandowski was a tailor and owned Tann and Company, Tailors and Drapers. William and Arville Sibley lived in the Dunshee bungalow at 1577 Sherman Avenue from 1914 to 1917 while William Sibley was treasurer of Auerbach's Department Store. The next owner, Sperry W. Lawson, was the secretary of the Decker-Patrick Company Department Store.

In addition to the builders noted above who lived in the subdivision, a variety of prominent individuals in business and public service resided there. J. Frank and Rose Bruins moved in to their house at 1370 Filmore Street in 1914 while he was a superintendent with the United States Forest Service. John C. Edgheill was an agent for a Boston wool company, a former Juab County state senator, and the owner of 1344 Filmore Street from 1914 to 1922. William C. Zeese was a member of the Salt Lake City detective/police department as he and his wife, Leola, lived at 1564 Harrison Avenue in 1914. Herbert Legg was a vice-president for Landes & Co., dealers in industrial machinery, when he lived in the Dunshee bungalow at 1576 Harrison Avenue in 1920.

Charles and Ethel Callow were the first owners/residents of the English Cottage at 1360 Filmore Street in 1936 as Charles Callow was working as an engineer. George P. Parker was elected Attorney General in Utah in 1928, the year he and his wife, Nellie, bought the English Tudor at 1371 Filmore Street. Joseph Pence was president of Graceland College and Mayor of Boise, Idaho, before he moved to Salt Lake City in 1922 to practice law. He and his wife, Lucia, and bought and lived in the Craftsman Bungalow at 1380 Filmore Street. Francis Goeltz was a urologist affiliated with St. Mark's Hospital when he moved into the house at 1335 Glenmare Street in 1915. Dana T. Smith was an attorney for the Oregon Short Line Railroad when he bought the house at 1551 Sherman Avenue in 1921. A number of the houses were speculative and rented for the first few years. The Dunshee 1914 bungalow at 1576 East Harrison Avenue that was the residence of Earl and Nellie Dunshee was later rented until 1926 when Charles E. West, an employee of the Utah Fuel Company, purchased it.

Summary

Westmoreland Place Historic District is significant for the quality and number of intact bungalows and period revival cottages as well as the prominent citizens who lived there in the early twentieth century. Because the development of the subdivision occurred over a short period of time, less than forty years, the area is visually cohesive. The setbacks are uniform, and the house types are compatible in terms of massing and scale. It contains an exceptional grouping of examples of Craftsman Bungalows not found elsewhere in Salt Lake City, particularly the airplane and California subtypes. It remains one of the most intact collections of architecturally significant bungalows and period cottages in the Salt Lake City. The Westmoreland Place Historic District is a significant contributing historic neighborhood of Salt Lake City.

Endnotes

  1. 53,531 in 1900 and 92,777 in 1910.
  2. June 3, 1913 Salt Lake Tribune article on Westmoreland Place.
  3. As noted in his obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune.
  4. Advertisement for Westmoreland Place lots in the April 13, 1913 Salt Lake Tribune. Both buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Walker Bank Building is listing #06000929, the Newhouse Building is a contributing building in the Exchange Place Historic District.
  5. These restrictive covenants are found in the original warranty deeds of the properties as well as noted in various newspaper articles, e.g. in the 5/11/1913 Salt Lake Tribune.
  6. Ibid.
  7. Equilateral triangles with a base of 34.44' and sides of 45'.

References

Alexander, Thomas G. and James B. Allen. Mormons and Gentiles, A History of Salt Lake City. Vol.V, The Western Urban History Series. Boulder, Colorado: Pruett Publishing Co., 1984.

Anderson, Charles Brooks. "The Growth Pattern of Salt Lake City, Utah, and its Determining Factors." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1945.

Architectural survey data for Salt Lake City from the statewide database of information on cultural resources in Utah at the Utah State Historic Preservation Office.

Boyce, Ronald R. "An Historical Geography of Greater Salt Lake City, Utah." University of Utah, MS Thesis, 1957.

Brinkerhoff, Jane and Stephanie Turner. "Westmoreland Place: A Retrospective of homes built between 1913 and the early 1920's." A student paper from the University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture. December 1993. Available at the Salt Lake City Planning Division and the Utah State Historic Preservation Office.

Carter, Thomas and Peter Goss. Utah's Historic Architecture, 1847-1940: A Guide. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Graduate School of Architecture and Utah State Historical Society, 1991.

Goss, Peter. Various "Structure/Site Information Forms." Available at the Salt Lake City Planning Division and the Utah State Historic Preservation Office.

McAlester, Virginia and Lee. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

Powell, Allan Kent, ed. "Population." In Utah History Encyclopedia. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1994.

Salt Lake City Directory. Salt Lake City: R.L. Polk and Company, 1930-1960.

Salt Lake Tribune.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps. Salt Lake City, 1950.

Sillitoe, Linda. A History of Salt Lake County. Utah Centennial County History Series. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society/Salt Lake County Commission, 1996.

Utah Light & Traction Company. Salt Lake City: Where to Go & How to Get There. [1940]. Available at the Utah History Research Center, Utah State Historical Society.

Utah State Historic Preservation Office. Reconnaissance Level Surveys. Standard Operating Procedures. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historic Preservation Office, Rev. January 2007.

Various student papers. Available at the Salt Lake City Planning Division and the Utah State Historic Preservation Office.

‡ Beatrice Lufkin, Westmoreland Place Historic District, Salt Lake County, Utah, nomination document, 2010, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.

Nearby Neighborhoods

Street Names
East 1300 South • Fillmore Street • Glenmare Street • Harrison Avenue • Sherman Avenue • South 1500 East • Westmoreland Drive


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