Stucco (Portland Cement) Houses

[mister.shoes]

Timely, relevant, interesting, and useful!
http://www.startribune.com/local/yourvo ... 30801.html

[Nathan]

sunset construction is a great company. I have worked with them a lot. it doesn't necessarily apply to older homes... but good article

[garfield]

I didn't know we have so much more stucco than other places.

Some houses, at least, have had their clapboard either replaced with or covered over with stucco. One such covered-over house is in the Wedge and the new owners used NRP funds to restore the original clapboard exterior.

That's a good point. I think a lot of the "four square" style homes were originally clap board. But then there appears to be a huge stucco boom during the 1920-1930s, in this style.

Cool! That is a picture of a house where my company refinished the stucco last summer. Our company has been around since 1910, so I would like to think that we have played a role in Minneapolis' stucco history. I was cleaning out our office this winter and found some cool photos that I scanned...I think it is neat to see the wooden scaffolding they used then! Since they are scanned, the files are too big to attach - here is a link: http://stuccominnesota.com/historic-min ... co-photos/

[woofner]

I always thought the prevalence of stucco here is primarily a function of the Twin Cities' relatively large growth spurt during the 20s, when the popularity of historical revival styles made stucco a common exterior choice, and that the soil and substrates of the area mean that aggregate is cheap here but brick isn't. Other cities that had large growth spurts in the 20s had more clay deposits for the most part, or else they also have lots of stucco. I haven't read any studies of this, however.

[lande35]

There are so many older homes that have original clapboard siding on their front porches, for example, and then have been re-sided in stucco. I picture some fast-talking super salesman traveling through Minneapolis sometime in the '40s, extolling the virtues of stucco. And the rest is history....

[EOst]

Found this chart while doing some research today. The author of the study in the 30s doesn't really have an explanation for why MSP has so many stucco houses, just notes it as a curiosity.

https://i.imgur.com/CqyPkJt.png