Cunningham House

The Cunningham house is named after the original owner, Mrs. Lillian Avey Cunningham. It’s one of the original four houses in Arbolada, all of which were designed to evoke an Old World European aesthetic called the Revivalism style. Because Arbolada is Lafayette’s first “planned” neighborhood and was initially designed with a Revivalism theme, Tudor, Spanish Colonial and other Colonial Revival styles were the only acceptable home designs. Also accepted were homes like this one, which is a mix of elements from two or more European aesthetics. These styles are referred to as Eclectic Revivalism. Cunningham house has windows and a chimney resembling those of an Old English cottage with Spanish Revival decorative motifs on the walls and over the windows as well as a stucco finish. It originally included Spanish tile roofing. Other houses in this neighborhood with Revivalism styles are the L. O. Clark House, the Carver House and the Dr. Louis B. Long House. Arbolada’s original developers were Dr. L. O. Clark, Mr. Ben Williams, Mr. Albert S. Storm, and Mr. Orrin B. Hopkins. In 1924, they purchased the Arbolada property from Mr. Crow Girard for $13,000.