A classic Cape Cod house in Laramie But it didn’t stay classic for long
When I taught historic housing at UW, we would take field trips around the University neighborhood which provided great examples of housing styles from the 1870s to the 1970s.
Students would often tell me that their favorite house was the one at 318 S. 15th St. At that time the style of this house was unique for Laramie – an almost perfect example of a Cape Cod “whole house.” While so common in the east—though borrowed from England—it stood out as “different” in Laramie.
Cape Cod style
A “whole” Cape Cod has a central front door and two windows placed symmetrically on either side and a central chimney that in Colonial America would heat all four rooms on the ground floor—two in the front and two in the back. The central front door leads directly into the front room, or possibly to the stairway to the second floor. Little space is wasted on hallways in a Cape Cod; one accesses the back rooms through the front rooms.
The roof is moderately pitched, not extremely steep, but the ridge line parallels the street, so the front of the house presents a lot of roof.
Cape Cods are a story and a half; on the second floor an adult can only stand up at the ridge line and a few feet on either side. In olden days children slept there in one large room or two small rooms. Sometimes, to give more room on the second floor, dormer windows might face the street, often added when new owners remodeled. Otherwise, windows on the second floor are only on the gable end vertical walls.
There are several other standard features present in a true Cape Cod. There are no overhanging eaves. The roof ends where it meets the vertical wall. Also, the roof comes down almost to the top of the front door. Sometimes, as in this house, there is a little space above the front door for a horizontal transom or “fanlight” window.
A Cape Cod house has virtually no foundation showing. The clapboard or shingle siding comes very close to the ground level—an indication that there is no basement. Another unique feature is the total lack of a front porch, often just a very shallow step to the front door.
Suitable for a budget
A Cape Cod house could be built in sections. The first part would have the front door on one side, and a pair of identical windows next to the door—a “half house.” As the family acquired more funds, another section with two more matching windows could be added to the other side of the front door creating the classic symmetrical façade that makes a “whole house.”
There is even such a thing as a “three-quarter” Cape Cod; the second addition only has one window, with owners having every intention of adding a room with the second window to make the symmetrical plan as soon as funds allow. Sometimes the third addition didn’t happen, leaving an uncharacteristic asymmetrical façade.
Decorative design is at a minimum on Cape Cod homes. A little entablature around the front door might set it off, and the functional shutters for the windows are often painted a dark color. The brick chimney might have a bit of trim and chimney pots, but nothing more.
Style catches on
It became a very popular style in Colonial America, particularly in the maritime areas of New England. Many original examples are still standing on Cape Cod and are treasured relics, often still lived-in. Area shipbuilders used their tried-and-true methods, turning a ship’s hull upside down to create a roof with side gables. I saw one on Cape Cod years ago with a gentle convex curve from the top ridge line to the eave providing more second-story headroom.
Some “conventions” regarding the design of a Cape Cod developed, several of which were the result of the east coast environment. The forests provided plentiful wood, especially rot-resistant cedar, which was used for the horizontal clapboard siding and the shingled roof. Originally, Cape Cod houses did not have paint—the clapboard siding weathered to the gray-brown that is characteristic of the humid east coast.
As prosperity came, so did paint, and these houses eventually gained a coat of white paint, with the roof shingles allowed to weather naturally. Because the shingles were thick, there were lots of shadows that made the roof look dark. But the humidity also caused mosses to grow on the shingles, which over time created a dark green tinge to the roof.
Because New England coastal areas are beset by storms, there would usually be wooden shutters on either side of the windows, which could be fastened shut to block the nor’easter winds.
No architect needed
Many reference books point to the Cape Cod style as “vernacular” or, in less fancy terms, as a folk house. No architect was necessary to produce one; it was so common in New England that practically every carpenter or homeowner knew how to build it. The floor plan and the design were standard; local lumber yards carried all the materials necessary for the style.
It could be considered a “starter” home, and was the style adopted for the thousands of post-war “Levittowns” that William Levitt and Sons started building in 1947 on the east coast for returning G.I.’s. One of these houses could be built in less than an hour, using the pre-fabricated techniques the builders pioneered. These were the first American suburbs, and were much criticized at the time for the sameness of these “tract housing” developments. Successive generations have added onto and transformed the original Levittown Cape Cods into yet another style—“American Vernacular.”
Laramie modifications
There are some things about the Cape Cod that are not especially suited for Laramie. For one thing, basements in Laramie are a very cost-effective way of obtaining more living space—they aren’t so damp in most local building sites as they often were in Colonial New England. So Laramie examples often have a basement.
Another is the lack of an eave. Rain and snowmelt would wash down the front of the house, so a gutter and downspouts are a necessary addition (in New England, the front door was hardly ever used, so that wasn’t a big problem). Careful attention would need to be paid to wind direction when choosing a site; in our climate drifts would make the front door useless if snow accumulated. And if it faced northwest, the prevailing wind would fill the house with a blast of winter air whenever the front door opened.
For today’s life-style, having the front door open directly into a living room is not what most home-buyers want. People prize a porch, front hallway, or some other way to achieve family privacy and protect the interior from outside weather.
There was no garage attached to the original house; that didn’t become common until the 1945 building boom in America. In Colonial times, no one would want the horse barn with attendant flies and smells to be incorporated into the house itself.
A Faithful Adaptation
The house at 318 S. 15th St. was designed by architect Fredric Hutchinson Porter (1890-1976), a native of Massachusetts who settled into a Cheyenne practice around 1921. He designed it in 1922, so it was quite early in his career. The American Heritage Center in Laramie has archival information about Porter, and some of his plans.
Porter was lucky to find a client from Laramie who had also experienced the charm of the Cape Cod house. Thurman W. Arnold (1891-1969), was a Laramie native who had graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School. A wave of nostalgia for Colonial Revival styles was sweeping through America, a reaction against the excessive ornamentation of the Victorian styles of the past. Particularly in college towns, there was a desire for “new” architecture that displayed American roots.
Porter had obviously studied New England styles, and the design he prepared for the Arnold family was fairly faithful to the classic, even down to the green-stained shingles for the roof. At the time the house was built, Thurman Arnold was a WWI veteran, a lecturer at the University of Wyoming, a member of the Wyoming Legislature, and had just been elected mayor of Laramie. He and his wife, Doris Frances, had two young sons, and Arnold had also been in private practice in Laramie with his attorney father, Constantine Arnold.
There is a quiet dignity about the classically-designed Arnold house, friendly rather than imposing, partly because it is so close to the ground. It is also on a busy Laramie thoroughfare, so it got noticed, though 15th St. was not nearly so busy in 1922. The house is still known as the “Arnold” home—Thurman W. Arnold was destined for fame and fortune as a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department in Franklin Roosevelt’s administration.
The Arnold family did not live in it very long. Though the plans are dated 1922, the family may not have moved in until 1924, which is the date for it in the Albany County Assessor’s records. In 1927 the Arnolds moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, where he became dean of the College of Law there. They sold this house, but retained the Constantine Arnold family home at 812 Grand, where Thurman W. Arnold had been born, and where his widow lived when returning to Laramie after Thurman Arnold died in 1969.
A drastic change
Over the years there have been many different owners of the Arnold house. In fact, it is for sale once again in 2020; it is listed as a four-bedroom home at just under $400,000. The first major change turned the green shingle roof into a black composition shingles. In the 1960s to 1980s, the house was owned by city council member Alice Swett and her husband. They added a three-car garage (one bay big enough for a large RV) to the north.
Then, after the Swetts sold it, a subsequent owner remodeled the front to provide a closed entrance foyer and new basement stairway, with a fan-topped window that referenced the original fanlight that was over the now-hidden original front door. At some point the color scheme changed completely. Now it, too, is a good example of “American Vernacular” style—no longer a Cape Cod but perhaps more suited to today’s needs.
By Judy Knight
All photos by Judy Knight
Caption: Before: In 1975, the 1922 Arnold house at 318 S. 15th was a classic Cape Cod ”whole house” style, though with extensions on either end, a sunroom on the left, and perhaps a kitchen add-on, or maybe a garage to the right. Note the lack of eave overhang, the green roof, lack of a raised foundation and simple symmetry of this design, so typical of the Cape Cod “whole house,” having two windows with shutters on either side of the front door.
Caption: After: 318 S. 15th as it looked in 2018, nearly 100 years after it was built, with a new color scheme and an entry foyer addition that altered the Cape Cod look so it now sports “American Vernacular” style—a hybrid with owner modifications to suit new needs. The trees remain, probably planted by the first owners as befits the “tree area” location in Laramie.
Caption: Garage addition: Another owner adaptation of this house was the garage addition that is almost as large as the entire original house was. The garage doors face the alley that runs parallel to Grand Ave. so the front of the house still lacks the distraction of all these garage doors that would have drastically altered its appearance. As three-car garages go, it is relatively sympathetic to the original style.