esh-- Thanks for narrowing it down! I missed two keys identifiers earlier this year, being too busy to get to the semi-abandoned side yard: the flowering period and the fruiting (thus my comment that they don't fruit). Your link above and some quick reading reminded me that I did indeed see "light red fruit" on an older tree of identical habit back in Aug. I'm thinking Prunus pensylvanica over the other 2. I'll be watching closely next spring and late summer at the flowers and fruit. These trees are just sprouting all over on me--I'll keep some for screening and because I like them--nice color and nice branch effect (to me, anyway) in winter. Many thanks!! PJP

Dwarf conifers are a possibility - there are scads of varieties and many will never exceed 15' in a lifetime. Since they are evergreen, they look as good in winter as in summer, but they don't flower and they don't grow fast. Evergreen flowering shrubs are limited for your hardiness zone but you could look at rhododendrons or pieris. Some varieties are more sun tolerant than others but again, none growth particularly fast. There are any number of deciduous flowering shrubs that could work for you - lilac, forsythia, smokebush, rose of Sharon, chionanthus. These tend to grow more rapidly than either conifers or broadleaved evergreen shrubs but they are pretty much uniformly naked in winter :-) It is hard to find any flowering trees that wil remain below 15'....and even these generally tend to have naked trunks or seldom branch to the ground. Personally, I would opt to create a larger planting bed somewhere along the street side that is appropriate to your screening requirements. And I'd use a mix of plants - something tall and full to provide screening, something that provides seasonal bloom color and something to give evergreen/winter attraction. I know not everyone thinks this way but a tree (or two) or even a large shrub plunked down in the middle of the lawn looks to me extremely awkward and disconnected. Even less appropriate with a small garden such as yours - it comes across as a bit of an after thought instead of a planned landscape. I would much prefer to see a well thought out planting bed with maybe a larger tree to anchor it and smaller shrubs as an accompaniment.

The tulip poplar is an enormous tree, much higher than 20 feet. The native dogwood, I think prefers to grow in partial shade as an understory tree. My own redbud has grown pretty quickly. In three years it has reached over my head, but it's not very bushy. The problem with very fast-growing trees is that they are not always very strong, so they might not be good close to the house. Maybe your brother could consider something temporary while he waits for a nice tree to grow. The porch of my childhood home was shaded by a beautiful redbud. They grow about as wide as they grow high - about 20 feet.

Seriously doubt the OP's shrub is E. europaeus. Europaeus is not native here, rarely sold in any nurseries and very uncommon. It is far more likely to be E. occidentalis or the western wahoo. Roxsanne, we would need to see photos of yours to confirm it is NOT winged euonymus (E. alatus), which is very widely planted and can self-seed freely, to the point of being an invasive species in many locations. There is a possibility it could be an eastern wahoo, E. americanus, but again, need to see photos to confirm.