5309 Upton Ave. So.

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Architects: Purcell and Strauel (“spec” house for Henry M. Peterson)
Date: 1932
Style: English Cottage Fantasy Revival

This is one of seven speculative houses designed for developer Henry M. Peterson, who owned the house at 3 Red Cedar Lane. Some were designed collaboratively by William Purcell and his long-time draftsman, Fred Strauel. Two are credited to Strauel alone, though all seven were done at the same time and Purcell undoubtedly had some influence on all of them. At the time these houses were designed, Purcell lived in California while Strauel was in Minneapolis. As with the houses on Red Cedar Lane, most of the windows are grouped in horizontal bands with either strips of wood tying them together (first floor) or by placing the windows right up against the overhanging eaves (second floor). The window group over the front door is Purcell and Strauel’s Arts & Crafts version of a Palladian window, named for the 14th-century Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who popularized it (see photo of a typical Palladian window)

A metal cap shelters the little porch over the front door and the door is surrounded by a sawn wood border in a vine pattern.

Compare the depth of stucco in this house with its neighbors, 5315 and 5319. The stucco on this house is relatively smooth. 5315 is slightly rougher – called pebbledash – and 5319 has the greatest depth, called roughcast. The varying depths are created by adding different sized stones to the stucco mixture.