The house at 777 Dakota South - on the corner of 8th and Dakota - was built in 1916 for Coe Isaac Crawford and his wife Lavina.
Crawford was an attorney and a politician, who in 1889 had been elected to the Territorial Council of South Dakota legislature. When S.D. achieved statehood in 1889, he was elected to the first S.D. State Senate, and later also served as Attorney General.
He and Lavina moved to Huron in 1897 and he served as the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad until 1903. Coe ran for S.D. Governor in 1907, but after his election only served as Governor for a year before running for the United States Senate. He won that election and served as U.S. Senator until 1914. He became known as a “fiery orator” after a 40-hour filibuster in the U.S. Senate. After serving as a Senator he returned to Huron and practiced law until his retirement, then moved to Yankton in the 1930s.
His daughter occupied the home after he moved. His daughter was Jeannette (Crawford) Lusk , the wife of Robert Lusk, the publisher and editor of the Huron newspaper, called The Huronite at that time.
Subsequent residents included the Ralph Bischoff family, which used the house as their residence during the 1950s and 60s. Mr. Bischoff was the owner of a local car dealership, who was killed in a tragic vehicle accident while goose hunting. The accident also took the lives of Frank Sanderson, the father of Rollie Sanderson and the namesake of “Franks Hamburgers,” as well as Carroll Fullerton, Sr., of the Fullerton Furniture Store.
The current owners of 777 Dakota S, are Max and Jeannette Peterson, who purchased the property in 1993 for their business, “The Orange Crate,” an art and framing studio. They maintained their business there until 2017.

Max is the son of Clarence “Jumbo “ Peterson who was Mayor of Huron for a number of years. Both Max and Jeannette are Huron natives. Max graduated from SDSU and taught art at Huron College, while Jeannette attended Huron College. The Petersons now occupy the house as their residence.
 The Architect for the design of the house was F.C.W. Kuehn of Huron, who also designed several other homes in Huron. The Petersons have preserved the original drawing and specifications for the home.
Both the interior and the exterior of the home are original in almost every aspect, other than the upper floor, which was converted to an apartment a number of years ago. The home features stone on the front facade and has a stone fireplace. The interior ceilings have wood beams in the formal areas, and also enjoys natural light from high windows on the north and south sides, in addition to both a front porch and a side porch.
The house survives as an excellent example of Craftsman-style architecture in the Campbell Park Historic District.

The following description of 777 Dakota S., is taken from the 2017 Campbell Park Historic District’s Walking Tour Guide.
This home is a one and one-half story Craftsman-style bungalow, with distinctive stone, detailing on an enclosed gable front porch on the front (east) facade. The porch has deeply flared eaves with knee braces, exposed rafter tails, and decorative half-timbering in the peak of the gable. The front door to the porch is likely original and features fifteen lites, surrounded by a simple wooden frame. A ten-over-one cottage window is located to the left (south) side of the front porch, beneath a small shed-rood dormer, with wood shingle siding and six-over-one wooden windows. A polygonal bay window, with six-over-one wooden windows is located on the south facade, to the left (or west) of an exterior stone chimney.
A small dormer with a shed roof and shingle siding is present on the east facade. The building is clad in narrow clapboard siding with mitered corners on the first floor, rectangular wood shingles on the second floor, and decorative half-timbering in the peaks of the gable ends. The rood is covered in red asphalt shingles.

Photo by Curt Nettinga/Plainsman
This house at 777 Dakota Avenue South is the home of Max and Jeanette Peterson, and was the site of their business, “The Orange Crate,” for many years. The house has a long history, and was built for one of the leading South Dakota politicians of his time, Coe Crawford.