The House
Question: When you combine "Frank Lloyd Wright" and "Presbyterian Minister", what do you get?
Yes, I know, you’re tempted to say, “John Dalles”. So am I. However, long before I happened on the scene, that conjunction of terms brought about a lovely Prairie School house in Kentucky’s capital city, Frankfort.
The Rev. Jesse R. Zeigler House, as it is best known, is not only a home of great architectural interest, it also has a charming back story. The house is the result of a shipboard meeting in the summer of 1910, between Rev. Jesse R. Ziegler, a young and energetic minister, and Frank Lloyd Wright, who was on his way to Italy in that disruptive chapter of his life when he abandoned his practice and family to run away with his client and neighbor, Mamah Borthwick Cheney.
Whether Rev. Ziegler knew of or even suspected that Wright was in the midst of the first of his many midlife crises is unknown. But he was literally at sea, and whether Wright or Ziegler initiated the conversation about the house that would result, it began somewhere mid-Atlantic.
Wright proposed a home for Ziegler and his wife Charlotte and their young family that was as familiar to him as the back of his hand. It was a concept Wright had developed for the Ladies Home Journal and published in its April 1907 issue under the heading “Fireproof House for $5000".
Essentially a cube, with an innovative open plan for the first floor, pinwheeling around the big fireplace, the sketch must have appealed to the prospective client. For, the sketch was thereafter fleshed out by Wright’s staff back in Oak Park, and became the landmark house that stands at 509 Shelby Street, Frankfort, Kentucky, today.
Prairie School in design and concept, the Ziegler residence was thus the output of the staff that Wright left behind in Oak Park. Supervised by Hermann V. Von Holst, Marion Mahoney Griffin was in charge of design, ably assisted by architecturally-trained Isabel Roberts, and John Van Bergen, who learned his architectural gifts (which were many indeed) as an apprentice in the Oak Park Studio. What specific roles each of them played in bringing about the construction drawings is not known. It is highly likely that Isabel Roberts designed all of the beautiful art glass light screen windows, an area of speciality which, as has been well-documented, she is known for producing while in Wright's employ.
What is known is that Wright was preoccupied with other matters both personal and professional while out of the county. His communication skills while in Europe were not of the best and caused many frustrations for his staff and his clients. So it is generally accepted that beyond his initial sketch, his involvement in the house’s creation was both literally and figuratively remote. The house plans were completed by his able staff, mentioned above, and built by Frankfort construction contractor Scott (Scott Brothers Contractors) without any further Wright involvement or supervision. Indeed, Wright did not manage to visit the house in person until the late 1940s.
Built starting in the winter of 1910, the quintessential "Prairie Style" Zeigler house is situated in a quiet residential neighborhood in the capital region of Frankfort. On each side, and indeed up and down the block, the house is set among other largish middle class homes of the period, which are mainly American Foursquare in style. Interestingly, some of the American Foursquare concepts derive from ideas conceived by Frank Lloyd Wright and his contemporaries. So the house, while different from its neighbors, does not look out of place, at all. It is set slightly further back than the houses on each side, allowing the living room, cantilevered balcony, and front terrace to "borrow" the front yards of the two neighboring homes as part of its view - a common Wright design choice that has been best documented in the Thomas House in Oak Park.
Architectural fans will wish to compare the floor plans of the original $5000 house with the realized Kentucky version thereof. Both are shown below.
Most descriptions of the Ziegler House say that it is based on the Lady's Home Journal house, but with the addition of the entry pergola. In fact, the opposite is true. The entry pergola exists in the magazine version of the house, but with the added much longer "trellis terrace", a projecting porch, visually making the house seem more horizontal than it actually is. Site considerations with regard to the lot sizes on Shelby Street would have made that long projecting porch/pergola physically impossible.
Instead of the side pergola, the Ziegler House has both front and back terraces for the enjoyment of the outdoors. In this regard it resembles the K. C. DeRhodes House in South Bend, among others. These terraces provide opportunities to have french doors instead of windows in the living room and the dining room, which can be flung open in fine weather, further blending the indoors and outdoors, one of Wright's goals in his Prairie houses and thereafter.
The Ziegler house is deeper than the $5000 house, providing for a larger dining room and kitchen than in the magazine house. Also, the side entry incorporates a powder room, where only a coat closet appears on the $5000 house plan.
In both plans, from the entry one enters the living room which is connected to the dining room in an L-shaped floor plan arrangement, screened slightly by the large fireplace hearth. The work area of the kitchen is more traditionally partitioned off from the living and dining spaces, as was customary for those who wished to entertain guests without having a view into the kitchen.
The long continuous bank of casement windows stretching on the wall of the living and dining room is exactly as portrayed in the magazine version of the house, complete with exterior planter, to provide some level of privacy from the neighbors. Of course, the other provision for privacy is that the windows are all leaded glass, custom-designed in a pattern used only in this house. The smaller than usual panes reflect light and therefore obscure the view looking from exterior to interior, but allow a clear view out from the interior.
The central fireplace is a hallmark of Prairie style design, constructed of long Roman brick, as was customary of Wright's brick specifications. Unique to this house is a leaded glass doored set of cabinets that surround the fireplace. When asked in the 1940s by the then-owner what he had in mind in designing them, Wright said he could not recall (but probably this is because the cabinets were requested by the Zieglers and designed in Oak Park without any input from Wright). No other Wright home is known to have such cabinets.
Overall, the Ziegler House displays many of the recognizable features for which Wright and his associated architects became justly famous. The emphasis on the horizontal line of the prairie, the grouping of windows to form a visual continuous band, light screens (leaded glass casement windows in a stylized pattern drawn from nature), broad overhanging eaves making use of the concept of the cantilever, hidden front door, a blending of the interior and exterior spaces, and prominent chimney massing. The Zieglers ended up with a true Prairie Style gem of a home.
Note that $5000 in 1907 is roughly $150,000 in 2021 dollars. Surely this house cost more than the magazine's somewhat ambitious low price; Wright houses always cost more than estimated. The Ziegler House last sold in 2000 for upwards of $300,000.
An important note: The Ziegler House is privately owned and beautifully maintained. If you happen to go to see it, please remain on the public sidewalk in front of the house, and do not impinge upon its residents.
The Clients
The Rev. Jesse Rheinhardt (aka alternate spellings as well as Richard) Ziegler. (March 6, 1877 - December 22, 1920)
When Jesse R. Zeigler was born on 6 March 1877, in Mercer, Pennsylvania, United States, his father, Henry Harrison Ziegler (June 29, 1834-June 16, 1906). was 27 and his mother, Elizabeth Mason, was 23. Based on their birth years, Ziegler was ten years younger than Frank Lloyd Wright.
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Jesse Ziegler made a public profession of his faith of the age of 13, at his home church, the first Presbyterian Church in Mercer, Pennsylvania. He was a 1894 graduate of Grove City College. And thereafter attended Princeton University as a senior, graduating in the class of 1896. He then was a teacher at the Mercer High School for one year.
Ziegler entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1897. He took the seminary's three years course, as is customary for divinity students, graduating in the class of 1900.
Under the care of Lackawanna Presbytery, he was licensed on May 23, 1900, and ordained on June 19, 1900 at the Stella Presbyterian of Maltby, Pennsylvania, where he served his inaugural pastorate.
He served the Great Island Presbyterian Church of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, from 1902 through 1906.
Ziegler and Charlotte Calvert Evans were married at the Great Island Presbyterian Church on February 20, 1906. (Princeton Alumni Weekly, 1906). He served the American church in Frankfurt Germany from March to December 1906. Thereafter, Ziegler was a student in the United Free College of Glasgow, Scotland, (now part of the University of Strathclyde), from January to March 1907.
Returning to the United States, Ziegler was called to serve as the pastor the First Presbyterian Church in Frankfort, Kentucky. from January 21, 1907 until being called to First Presbyterian Church of Indiana, Pennsylvania, where he served from October 11, 1915 until March 1, 1918.
While in Frankfort, he was a commissioner to General Assembly in 1915. (Minutes of the General Assembly, page 362. 1915.)
The Zieglers were to enjoy living in their Frank Lloyd Wright home for only five years before accepting a call elsewhere. Rev. Ziegler seems to have had itchy-feet with regard to his profession. Whether this is because he was considered an outstanding pastor, much in demand, or alternatively, restless and ambitious, is hard to know from more than a century's distance.
It is not yet known how the Zieglers were able to commission and build a Frank Lloyd Wright house on a minister's salary which, then as now, seldom reaches the level of munificent. Speculation about that includes the possibly that they may have had or come into family money just before embarking on the house building project. For example, Ziegler's father died in 1906. Did he receive an inheritance shortly thereafter? More research is needed.
The Zieglers were the parents of Charlotte Calvert Ziegler (1908-1997), Jesse Reinhardt Ziegler (1910-1984), and Elizabeth Mason Ziegler (1912-2000). Two of the three children had been born by the time of the house's creation in 1910: Charlotte and Jesse Jr. Elizabeth would be born soon thereafter. In later years, Elizabeth published a collection of children's songs, illustrated by a Frothingham relative by marriage. Jesse Jr was a 1934 graduate of Cornell.
Following his pastorate in Kentucky, Rev. Ziegler was pastor of the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church in Chicago (which was founded in 1914), from April 7, 1918 until his death on December 22, 1920. (Minutes of the Synod of Illinois, page 202. 1918) and (Herald and Presbyter, Volume 92, page 7. 1921.) One wonders if the Zieglers, upon relocating to Chicago, considered building another home designed by Wright, or if they were content to live somewhere less innovative.
Sadly, Rev. Ziegler died on 23 December 1920, in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, in St Luke's Hospital, at the age of 43. The cause was erysipelas, a serous infection, not easily treated in those days before antibiotic medication. His final resting place is in Oakwood Cemetery, Chicago.
Having been widowed at a young age, Charlotte later married Dr. Herbert H. Frothingham (1863-1943), a prominent Chicago physcian. She lived at least until 1957, when she was listed as a resident of Long Beach, California; as a passenger on the RMS Caronia for the Great World Cruise. World Cruise departing from New York on 20 January 1956. (Caronia world cruise passenger list).
Closing remarks:
This is the most information about the Ziegler House, and especially the clients, that you will find in one place, anywhere online. Research is ongoing and the article will be updated from time to time. If you have information about the family to share, I would enjoy hearing from you. If you are interested in the house visit the Instagram account of the current owners, where they share many lovely photos and insights about the architecture. See Instagram's Flwzieglerhouse
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