Palo Alto Stanford Heritage

Home	Architects & Builders	Holiday House Tour	Newsletters	Walking Tours
About PAST	Centennial Houses	INVENTORY	Preservation Awards	Contact PAST
Advocacy	History and Architecture Articles	Master Index to Houses	Resources	Join / Donate

Palo Alto Historic Buildings Inventory

1401 Cowper Street


Photo taken in 1978.	Robert Brandeis photo.

The following is from the Historic Buildings Inventory as revised in 1985:

Physical appearance: A full–width porch and trellis at the entry provide the major design interest for this two–story shingled Craftsman house.

Significance: This is a better–than–average Craftsman building, unusual in its vertical compositional emphasis. Its first owner, James E. Knapp, mining engineer, was succeeded in 1914 by Edgar A. Soper (1860-1944), whose family occupied the house until 1946. Soper grew up in San Jose and moved from Menlo Park to Palo Alto in 1893. He was the first postmaster for Stanford, and the Western Union and Well Fargo agent for Palo Alto and vicinity for many years.

From the early fifties to late sixties, Mrs. Nita R. Lettane, manufacturers agent, owned the residence, succeeded by Alexander and Marietta Fereira.

This house was built in 1909 and is a Category 4 on the Historic Buildings Inventory. The builder is not known. The property measures 50 by 113 feet.

Sources: Palo Alto City Directories; Palo Alto Times 12/31/1909. 4/14/1944, 2/22/1946

Top

E-mail us at either webmaster@pastheritage.org or president@pastheritage.org.

Palo Alto Stanford Heritage—Dedicated to the preservation of Palo Alto's historic buildings.