The William H. Brenton house (1878), at the northeast corner of Kelloge and Walnut streets, was one of the many designs by the pioneer Des Moines architect William Foster. The house is of brick, with a limestone foundation. In the Brenton house Foster adopted the format of a late Italianate scheme and modified it with a sprinkling of Eastlake details. The Eastlake elements are most apparent in the front entrance porch which wraps around to the side of the house. Also Eastlake in design are the exaggerated U-shaped stone lintels of the windows. The central motif on these lintels is the sunburst, below each of which is a horizontal scalloped motif. The roofs of the porch and of the main house still retain their iron fencing.
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