Westmoreland Place Historic District

Planned bungalow enclave on Salt Lake’s East Bench

Westmoreland Place Historic District is a small residential neighborhood on Salt Lake City’s East Bench, roughly thirteen blocks south and fifteen blocks east of the downtown business center. It was designated a Salt Lake City local historic district in 2010 and listed on the National Register in 2011–2012. Boundaries run roughly along 1300 South, 1500 East, Sherman Avenue, and 1600 East. Sixty-nine primary structures are entirely residential: single-family houses predominate, with four duplexes on the perimeter. City guidance notes uniform setbacks, rear garages, concrete curbs and sidewalks, and mature shade trees that form a continuous canopy.

The subdivision was laid out in 1913 by brothers Earl and Clark O. Dunshee, who had already platted Westminster Heights as Salt Lake’s first restricted residential area. They drew Craftsman bungalow ideas from Greene & Greene work in Pasadena and named the place with a nod to that California context. Granite gatehouses frame the diagonal Westmoreland Drive entrance at the northwest corner, marking the enclave off the surrounding grid. Early marketing promised lots at least 50 feet wide, a 25-foot setback, a minimum house cost, and landscape plantings including hundreds of maple trees with utilities kept off the street front.

Architectural phases

All houses date from 1913 to 1952; the majority are bungalows and period revival cottages. Early construction includes Craftsman and Prairie School bungalows — some rare California and Airplane Craftsman subtypes — with shallow pitched roofs parallel to the street, cross-gabled porches, and deep eaves. About 23 bungalow examples (roughly 38 percent of the total) define the primary character. After the Dunshees left for Los Angeles in 1922, a second phase filled the subdivision with English Tudor, English Cottage, and Colonial Revival types, including clipped-gable cottages, often at two stories. 1940s–1950s infill uses simpler Minimal Traditional forms, partly at the edges.

Architects Evans & Wooley, known for popularizing Prairie style in Utah, designed an early Colonial Revival house in the district. Streetcar service on 1500 East made the location a short ride from downtown until bus replacement around 1940. Alleys and tennis courts planned on the original plat were never fully built.

Access

Westmoreland Place remains a private residential neighborhood with local historic-district design review. Public streets allow a respectful walk; do not enter yards or driveways. The gatehouses are landmarks for orientation, not public buildings. No NRHP fee applies. From central Salt Lake, use 1300 South or 1500 East into the diagonal entry. City preservation pages and the residential design handbook document character; they do not list tourist hours or open houses.