Period Revival house styles, including Spanish Colonial, English Tudor, Mission, Pueblo, and French Norman, were favored by the American public for nearly half a century and became especially popular in domestic architecture after World War I. Based on indigenous building traditions of North America and Europe, these styles often reflected familiarity with external decorative features rather than with the deeper building tradition, formal features, or plan types. The Preston and Vella Ruth Hafen home, built in 1936, shows evidence of the Mission style in a Period Cottage, reflecting Vella Ruth Hafen’s close work with the builder to achieve a Spanish look inspired by travel and by Spanish architecture popular at the time. Its large arched entryway and arched porch provided the appearance she admired, as well as shade and a cool cross breeze, and the porch became a setting for children’s circus acts, neighborhood plays, group singing, visiting, and daily life. Preston and Vella Ruth Hafen were the home’s only residents; Preston returned there from his school-teaching days, fruit-transfer business, and time on the Arizona Strip, while Vella Ruth became a local asset who reared her children, entertained the town, sang at more than 200 events, and created imaginative sewn costumes and dresses. The house also stood as an early local example of a different architectural style in Santa Clara. The Mission style, which emerged from California at the end of the nineteenth century from the design of old Catholic missions, is characterized by red tile roofs, stucco wall surfaces, simple geometric forms, curvilinear gables, round arches, and arcades, with little surface ornamentation compared with Spanish Colonial style.