Walter Burley Griffin, Beverly, Chicago, (and More!)

So here’s a question:

If you are an architecture fan, and you have a few hours extra to spare while in Chicago, where will you go?

That is not an easy question to answer. Chicago is perhaps the foremost city in the world for great architecture. For a lot of different reasons. One can see the entire development of the skyscraper, simply by walking around the Loop.  I encourage you to do that if you have the opportunity. 

Or go directly west to the first suburb after the city limits, Oak Park, and you can bask in a collection of buildings from the prime era of the Prairie School movement, and even tour inside several buildings that were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Walk about, or press your nose to the glass of your vehicle, as you drive past many others. It’s sort of the architectural version of DisneyWorld. All quite beautiful, and a bit overwhelming.  

Or, just a smidgen to the west, is the sister suburb of River Forest, where you can see more of the same. And I should say in addition to the architecture that came out of Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park studio, you can also see wonderful work by many of his contemporaries. Some of them worked with him for a time--such as Isabel Roberts (who was in fact an architect), William Drummond, and John Van Bergen. Others did not.

If you want to see the most innovative school of the mid 20th century, then you want to see the New Trier High School.

You could do an all Joseph Lyman Silsbee tour of the city, or an all Mies van der Rohe tour, or an all Louis Sullivan tour, and barely scratch the surface.  Don't forget about beloved Uncle Dan Burnham...

If you want to see one of the first planned suburbs with meandering streets anywhere in the world, then you want to go out to Riverside, where you will enjoy works by a number of notable architects, all residential. Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park in New York City was the genius behind Riverside.  It is still a suburb in great demand, more than 125 years later.

If you’re thinking that this is about a week's worth of architectural sightseeing (and you haven’t quite got started yet), you are correct.

In the midst of all of that Chicago Architectural Wonderland is a little street that sometimes gets overlooked. People say to themselves, "We don’t have time to go there and do that and see that and so forth". I understand that. Over the course of many years of visiting in Chicago, I never got there. Until a trip to Chicago that had absolutely nothing to do with architecture provided me with a few extra hours to do as I pleased. In Beverly is a cluster of homes designed by Walter Burley Griffin, one of the architects working with Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, who contributed to the development of prairie style architecture.

There’s a street in Beverly that is like a miniature Oak Park with many a home designed by Walter Burley Griffin, in full collaboration with with his wife Marion Mahony Griffin, also an "alumni" of the Oak Park studio. 

The photos that I made that day, are without question, the highlight of my visit to Chicago four years ago. 

Quite apart from the reason for going to Chicago, I spent a very pleasant several hours strolling past these various Walter Burley Griffin designed houses. And photographing them from the public sidewalk, which I always encourage people to do when they go to see architecturally significant homes, because most of the homes are still private residences and lived in by people who, though they may be very appreciative and take good care of them, are not actually thrilled to have people tripping across their lawn, peeking in their windows, coming up on the porch, and so forth. Trust me, you don’t want to do this. Even if you think to yourself, "Well other people have surely done it." Let me say again: Don’t.

The impression that one gets when visiting these Walter Burley Griffin homes is that they are modest. They are definitely middle class homes, anything but pretentious. So they would not appeal to people who are impressed by vast square footage and a superabundance of dubious glitz. They sit comfortably on their lots, but they don’t announce themselves dramatically. If one were to drive down the street knowing nothing whatsoever about architecture, one might notice there’s something different in their style from other homes that one sees, but there is nothing that would make one's chin drop open and say, "Wow look at that place!"

As I say, the houses are mostly modest. They whisper or hum; they do not shout.  

They’re mostly stucco. And they tend to have dark brown wood trim. Those who have studied prairie style architecture will say they are firmly in the genre of similar homes, such as the Willits or the DeRhodes or the Ziegler, or ever-so-many other houses in the Midwest that are part of the Oak Park studio's output. 

That’s no surprise. Because Walter Burley Griffin had a lot to do with developing that style.

Walter Burley Griffin was a valuable and hard-working member of the Oak Park studio staff. He eventually had a falling out with Wright over not being paid. It’s funny about employees, but they do like to be paid for their work.

People who are cavalier about money, and Frank Lloyd Wright is the top of the list in that regard, sometimes get their feathers ruffled when someone who has worked hard for them has their hand out and says, "You owe me three months back salary", or something similar.  Funny, that.

So, the association with Wright ended. Griffin was out on his own designing buildings, quite successfully, with the able collaboration of Marion Mahony Griffin, an architect in her own right, and Walter’s wife. 

In Beverly, this cluster houses is part of the result.

People who are slavishly devoted to the point of blindness to Frank Lloyd Wright will point to these little houses in Beverly (if they bother at all), and say, "Look how Walter borrowed from Frank in order to create these houses."  Well, please take a deep breath. Because the reality is the opposite.  Many of the stylistic elements that one thinks of as quintessential Prairie Style were developed by Walter Burley Griffin while working for Frank Lloyd Wright.

What happened next?  After Walter designed these lovely little houses, he won a prestigious international competition, that many architects entered, to design the new capital city of Australia, Canberra.

The result of winning that competition was that he was engage to make it into reality. Which meant leaving the United States and going to Australia.  There, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin are justifiably remembered and honored as extremely gifted architects. As national treasures. The lake at Canberra is named in their honor.  I don't know of a body of water in Washington DC named for Mr. Wright, do you?

Meanwhile back in United States, Frank Lloyd Wright was struggling to recover from the damage that he inflicted upon himself by running off to Europe with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and the resultant loss of business. Wright's world was egocentric in the extreme.  The day was good if it was good for him, and it was bad if it was bad for him. The world of architecture was good if people were showering him with praise. And if they didn’t bother to praise him, he praised himself, long and loud, as he was won't to do.

But Wright did not stop at praising himself. He continued by putting down other people who had ever work for him.  If they went on to their own successes, they fell afoul of him.  

Wright was extremely jealous of Walter's success. It came just at a time when Wrights architectural career was on the skids. Wright never got over his bad habit of trying to erase others'  accomplishments. He did with the other Oak Park era folks as well. To his discredit. He, and the world, would’ve been better served had he said in effect , "Look at what a wonderful judge of talent I am, to have found these people and brought them into my studio, and let their talent shine as they worked for me."

But Wright wasn’t that kind of a guy was he?

I’ll go on, below, to talk about each of these houses individually.  But I do also want to say that a happy sidelight of this happy side trip was that there was a gentleman moving a car out of his driveway and onto the street as I was quietly sauntering past looking at one of the houses and taking as subtle a photograph as I could, so as not to be intrusive. He noticed me, invited me into his Walter Burley Griffin home, gave me a tour, and told me about the many years of living in his home. He introduced me to his wife, who may or may not have been somewhat surprised to see a stranger in her home...

Do you hear that? Someone in Chicago who was a stranger and who wasn’t expecting me, invited me into their home. Showed me around. Made me feel welcome.

Which reminds me of Matthew 25:35:

"I was a stranger - and you invited me into your home."

How does St. Paul put it in Romans 12:13?  Oh yes:

"Always be eager to practice hospitality."

BUT NOW, ON TO THE HOUSES...!

The story of how Griffin came to Beverly is an interesting part of local history.

The land that includes what is now Griffin Place was part of a “gentleman’s farm” owned by Samuel J. Wells, a meat packing company buyer.

Wells was born in 1858 in Birmingham, England, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1872. There are several mentions, in 1877 and 1883, of patents being granted to a Samuel J. Wells of Chicago, if that is the same man. The patents were for a hair loop to help with braiding hair, and a trunk fastener.

Wells’ older brother, Thomas, owned a large amount of stock in the Continental Packing Co., where Wells worked as a buyer. In 1908, Wells opened his own company as a commissioned buyer of hogs.

His wife was Helen Nash, and the 1900 U.S. Census listed the Wells Family living at 10407 S. Wood St. Their original house still stands, although it has been significantly altered and the address changed due to city renumbering. The 1910 U.S. Census listed Wells as a “squab raiser.” Those young domestic pigeons were a culinary delicacy.

In 1909, Wells’ daughter, Helen, became engaged to Russell L. Blount, manager of the real estate department for a bank. By that time, Wells was interested in developing his Beverly land for housing, and he gave the couple a lot on which to build.

Frank Lloyd Wright had built several homes in Beverly, including the Evans House on Longwood Drive, introducing the area to this innovative new Prairie style. It’s possible that Blount was actually interested in hiring Wright, but a visit to Wright’s studio led him to meet another architect working there, Griffin.

He designed a house for Blount, and during construction, Edmund C. Garrity, a plumbing contractor made Blount a substantial offer for the property; so, Blount sold him the “wedding” house. Thus, in 1909, the first Griffin home, the Edmund C. Garrity House, was built at 1712 W. 104th Pl. The cost was $4,000.

Spurred by the need for a home of his own and encouraged by the sale of the first house, Blount decided to become a developer and secured more plans from Griffin. Several more houses were built, and then in 1912, Griffin won a prestigious international competition to—literally—design Canberra, the capital city of Australia.

Griffin moved to Australia, where he remained until another commissioned project took him to India in 1935, where he died unexpectedly a few years later.

After Griffin left, Blount continued to build houses based on Griffin’s designs - three based on the Van Nostrand House (Williams, Hornbaker, and Clarke), and one based on the Salmon House (Furneaux) - and later worked with other architects. 

Blount also continued to work in banking, and he was an officer with the Commonwealth Trust and Savings Bank, which was a successful bank of its time.

Blount and Wells started up several construction companies in the area, including the Longwood Hills Construction Co. and the Tracy Ridge Company. One of the original Griffin homes was actually built for Wells, but Wells never lived in the house and rented it instead to Walter D. Salmon, for whom the house is named. Salmon later bought the house.

Unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending for either of the men who brought Griffin to Beverly.

On Aug. 14, 1915, Wells, 56, and his son Raymond, 22, were killed when their automobile was demolished by a train near Aurora. It was not clear how the accident occurred. They were out for an afternoon of sightseeing, and Wells was considered an excellent driver. But, who was actually driving the car at the time and why the auto was on the tracks remains a mystery.

On Nov. 16, 1933, Blount, 57, was shot in the chest at his home, 1740 W. 104th Pl., and died three days later in the hospital.

At the time, he owned a mortgage brokerage and was the manager of a currency exchange. Three men came to his home in an apparent kidnapping attempt, intending to take him to the currency exchange to force him to open the safe. He drove them off with a tear gas gun shaped like a fountain pen, but Blount was shot in the process.

Blount’s next-door neighbor, Walter Salmon, was also the vice president of Blount’s mortgage concern. Salmon reported that Blount had been held up several years prior at his office. He also reported that the kidnappers would have found no money at the currency exchange, as it had all been taken to the bank via armored truck earlier in the day.

At the coroner’s jury, Blount’s son, Lauren, reported that his father feared kidnappers the week before. The jury returned a verdict that Blount was killed by persons unknown.

Beverly’s Griffin homes were all but forgotten for decades until a 1973 article in The Prairie School Review brought them back to the public’s attention. The article praised Blount for his courage and vision in promoting early modern architecture.

The Harry G. Van Nostrand House

1666 W Walter Burley Griffin Place

1911

This is a small house that was built as a speculative rental property.  Harry G. Van Nostrand was the first renter.  The exterior shows the typical stucco and dark wood construction popularized by the Prairie Style.  The geometric design in the front gable over the screened porch is a recognizable motif used by Griffin often, to create interest without adding cost.  The house plan is compact.  The long-time owners utilized the screened porch as a fair weather living room. The floor plan is a smaller version of the Garrity House, below.

The Edmund C. Garrity House

1712 West 104th Place

1909

The Garrity House - also  known as "The Wedding House" - was the first of the Walter Burley Griffin houses to be built in Beverly.  It was originally intended to be the home of Russell and Helen Blount, as noted above.  However, it was sold to Mr. Garrity before they ever there.  Originally the home was finished in the  usual light color stucco with dark brown wood banding. Over the years, it has had modifications to the color scheme.  The photo shows it in its 2017 livery.

This pink and blue fantasy is probably not what the Griffins had in mind when they designed the house, but no matter, it brings a bit of whimsy and more than a taste of the islands to often-dreary Chicago.  The home sold in recent years and has undergone an exterior color scheme change since I took the photo in my famous visit to Chicago in 2017.  Certain elements of the home suggest that Marion had a great deal to do with this particular design.  The window fretwork especially.  The protecting cantilevered pergola at the center of the front facade is also a stylistic device Marion used elsewhere. And that Wright would later "borrow" on houses such as Fallingwater. 

 

About the client / first resident: Edmund C. Garrity was born in Illinois in 1880. By 1940 he lived at 8011 Maryland Avenue in Chicago.  Edmund C. Garrity died in Chicago on December 3, 1950.  His obituary states the following:

Mr. Garrity was born near Chatsworth, a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. M. Garrity. He went to Chicago as a young man and has continued to make that city his home since and gained prominence in the Chicago business world as the owner and operator of the National Plumbing and Heating Company. He was associated in the business with his three sons, who now carry on.  He is survived by his wife Mary Jane, and four sons, Edmond, Jr., Donald E. and John J. Garrity; two brothers James, of Pontiac and Leo F. Garrity, of Chicago and two sisters, Mrs. Margaret O'Brien and Mother Una. His final resting place is the St. Mary's Cemetery in Chatsworth.

By the way, uninformed writers tend to sometimes call Walter a landscape architect (yes, he did landscape designs and well as houses and other buildings), and they sometimes get further mixed up and attribute this to Marion or call her a "delineator" (which she was in addition to being an architect, and quite talented in that regard).  Please, people, give them their due.  There's certainly every reason to be proud to be a landscape architect or a delineator  Even so, in the Griffins' case, both were architects.  Read all about both of them on their Wikipedia entries.

The Russel L Blount I House

1724 W Griffin Place

1909

The Prairie School movement made a concentrated effort to create inexpensive homes. Or perhaps better stated, affordable homes.  If you see a genuine Prairie School such as the Blount I, you will note that it is essentially a cube (which more or less flies the the face of Wright's "breaking out of the box" concept.  This is one of many Prairie School houses, whether architect-designed or kit houses from Chicagoland, that makes use of the economical and compact use of materials.  Inside, it has a plan that is semi-open and revolves around the central fireplace.  in that and in other respects, it is part of the family of houses  based on the $5000 "Ladies Home Journal" house (see my previous post, and see the Blount I plan, below). As with most of the Beverly houses, this one displays the use of stucco and dark wood. 

The Harry F. Newland House

1737 W. Griffin Place

1912

The Newland house is particularly pleasing with its use of wood for the first floor and stucco for the portion of the second floor from the windowsills upward.  This provides a visual grounding for the house, and ties the window design together upstairs, as if the windows were more numerous and grouped together, as is often the case in Prairie School houses.  Obviously, this arrangement of paired windows is simpler to achieve and permits a greater flexibility in plan, in a smaller house.  To avoid looking boxy, the house has the front projecting one story gabled wing, In this case, it was probably an open porch, later enclosed somewhat effectively.  Many of the Prairie School houses had this exact same remodeling feature at some point along the way, so that the owners had full use or what would otherwise be a May to September space in the Windy City.  This house was begun by Griffin and completed by Spencer and Powers, who were also noted Prairie School architects of the era, and who are usual listed as the architects of record for this house.

Harry F. Newland was born in England in 1866.  He married Gladys Perryer.  Their son Harry Montague Newland was born in 1889.  

The Arthur G Jenkinson and William N Clarke Houses

The Blount I House

Blount I House - First Floor Plan

The William N Clarke House

1731 W Griffin Place

1913

The Clarke House is a variation on the Van Nostrand House which is hard to guess, because it is shifted on the lot 90 degrees, and has lost its porch.  Even so, the Clarke House may be the purest statement of Griffin's aesthetic in this cluster of houses, as it follows precise geometry and its spare use of wood banding dramatically emphasizes the overhanging gable.  The wood banding that follows the slope of the roof gable has the visual effect of diminishing the perceived height of the house, and therefore tying it more artistically to the ground - a way of emphasizing the horizontal line of the prairie.  Observers often mention that this house seems the most Asian inspired of the group, and they would not be incorrect.  The corner windows do a good deal to help the house break out of the box, especially from the inside looking out.  Somewhat unusual for many of the Prairie School houses, the grouped windows here in the gable, and elsewhere on Walter Burley Griffin Place, are of an even number.  So often Wright used group windows, but almost without exception, there were an odd number of them (5 rather than 4, for example).  The Jenkinson House (below) is another instance of Griffin's freedom to use the more static even number of grouped windows than odd. 

The Arthur G. Jenkinson House

1727 W Griffin Place

1912

Perhaps the best feature of this house is the interplay between the tall "shoulders" of the corners and the downward flare of the centered window design.  Imagine both of them gone, and a  unified exterior of wood or brick, and suddenly the house becomes much more conventional in nature.  The dark wood board and batten cladding has the horizontal line that Prairie School architects so consistantly  strived for.  The banding (one could almost say it is half-timbering) is bold and pleasing.  As with the neighboring Clarke House, the sedan floor banding follows the line of the gable, and for the same reason, to visually tie the house to the ground.  For another view of the house see the next photo.

Arthur G. Jenkinson was born August 18, 1885 in Michigan.  He was the son of a Presbyterian minister.  Arthur died on February 1, 1974. His final resting place is Mount Auburn Cemetery in Harvard, Illinois.  He was married to Hester T. Guild Jenkinson (1891-1957).  She was a talented vocalist and sang in many local concerts.  On June 19, 1913, she and Arthur were married.

When Hester Thompson Guild was born on 1 October 1891, in Arlington Heights, Cook, Illinois, United States, her father, William Wyckoff Guild, was 43 and her mother, Adella Marie Thompson, was 34. 

Hester was born to real estate agent W. William Guild and his wife Adell, and grew up in Arlington Heights, Illinois. She was active in both church and high school activities including writing for the school magazine and participating in oratory contests. She was a talented vocalist and sang at many local concerts. On June 19, 1913, she married Arthur Gilbert Jenkinson, the son of the Presbyterian minister. Arthur worked as a carpenter and builder. Hester and Arthur are known to have lived in Tracy, Chicago; Maine Township, Illinois; and South Bend, Indiana. Hester T. Jenkinson passed away July 31, 1957 at about 65 years of age. Arthur G. Jenkinson passed away in February, 1974, at about 89 years of age.

She married Arthur G Jenkinson on 19 June 1913, in Arlington Heights, Cook, Illinois, United States. She lived in Maine Township, Cook, Illinois, United States in 1930 and Park Ridge, Maine Township, Cook, Illinois, United States in 1940. She died on 31 July 1957, at the age of 65, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Harvard, McHenry, Illinois, United States. 

Hester Jenkinson at age 22 can be seen here:

Hester Jenkinson

More about Arthur's step-father here:

Rev. Henry S. Jenkinson, who was pastor of the Arlington Heights Presbyterian church from 1913 to 1925, died Saturday at his home 1669 W. 104th place, Chicago. Funeral services were held Tuesday with interment in Mount Hope cemetery. Among the pallbearers were Henry F. Muller and Burton Noyes of Arlington Heights.
The deceased was one of the oldest members of the Chicago Presbytery. He was ordained in Canada in 1881, came to Chicago in 1891, serving as Presbyterian pastor at South Chicago, Seventh church, Scotch Westminster, West Pullman, and Arlington Heights. He retired from the ministry and moved to the family home in Beverly when he resigned from the Arlington church in 1925.
Rev. Jenkinson was born Oct. 9, 1856 in Sheltenham, Gloustershire, England, coming to America in 1869. Mrs. Jenkinson died 13 years ago. He is survived by his two daughters, Edith and Jennie, and a son, Arthur G. of Park Ridge. - August 3, 1945

The Jenkinson House

In the view from the sidewalk, the house takes on a symmetrical aspect that is almost ecclesiastical in nature.  Before the projecting porch was enclosed, the blend between outdoors and indoors wold have been less rigid, visually.  This is another iteration of the $5000 house type, but so deftly done, the house seems anything but boxy.  This might be a  good place to mention that the front door to the house is not located in a place that is obvious.  It is hidden, from casual passers-by on the sidewalk, and this is on purpose.  It is also quite unlike 99 percent of the builder houses or houses designed by architects not of the Prairie School.  The interest in providing privacy as well as an indoor-outdoor connection prompted the positioning of the main entry in a subtle location, so that one "discovered" it as one approached the house, and such a discovery, it is assumed, was done by those who were invited, or friends of the owner.  The resultant sense of mystery and charm is one of the delightful hallmarks of Prairie School design.  

William R. Hornbaker House

1710 W 104th Street

1914

This is a little gem of a Prairie School house and is a variation of the Clarke House.  If you think it is veering toward the Tudor-esque you are not alone.  Aspects of the house suggest that aesthetic, but even so, the familiar Griffin motif of the wood following the line of the gable is present here.  Tudor homes would never have used such a design detail.  See as well that the windows, while grouped as is expected in a Prairie School house, are even in number, not odd in number.  A Griffin "give away".  I doubt the second floor window box was part of the original design but it is inoffensive, and in fact has some connection to the planting boxes used in the various versions of the $5000 houses.

William Russell Hornbaker, 1870 - 1933
William Russell Hornbaker was born on month day 1870, at Yountsville, Indiana, to Albert T Hornbaker and Susan Elvira Hornbaker (born Price) . Albert was born on October 6 1846, in Ripley, Montgomery, Indiana, USA. Susan was born on June 22 1847, in Cass County, Indiana, USA. William had one sister: Sarah Price Hornbaker . William married Mary D Hornbaker (born Rogers) in 1893, in Illinois. Mary was born on July 1864, in New York, USA. They had one son: Albert Rogers Hornbaker . William then married Esther R Hornbaker (born Perry) in 1916, at age 46 in Illinois. Esther was born on November 5 1871, in Clifton, Iroquois, Illinois, USA. William passed away in 1933, at age 63 in Florida.

Ida E. Wiliams House

1632 W 104th Street

1913

This is the sister of the Van Nostrand House shown first on the list. So it is pleasant to compare them.  Both have L shaped plans thanks to the offset front porch.  This one is enclosed, and may have been from the get-go.  The fenestration certainly looks authentic.  Note the clever use of the angles in the central portion of the windows there.  Other similarities include the horizontal wood banding, to make the house look longer rather than taller.  Just like when a person wears horizontal or vertical stripes.  It is subtle but effective in both houses. 

A collage of the Walter Burley Griffin Place Houses

Have a look at the following, which is the 1973 Prairie School Review article by Paul E. Sprague that reignited the interest in these houses after many years of obscurity:

1973 Prairie School Review, Paul E. Sprague

Copyright © 2021, John A. Dalles.  All rights reserved.

The Rev Jesse R. and Charlotte E. Ziegler House - Frankfort, Kentucky

The House

Ziegler House - Front Elevation

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.

Ziegler House - Street View

Architectural fans will wish to compare the floor plans of the original $5000 house with the realized Kentucky version thereof. Both are shown below. 

Fireproof House - First Floor Plan

Ziegler House - First Floor Plan

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

DeRhodes House is Currently For Sale

The K C and Laura DeRhodes House in South Bend is currently for sale. It's a Prairie School gem. 

The house is an outstanding example of the Prairie School aesthetic, and the product of the Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright during his first golden years of success in creating and building a new architecture - mainly in the midwest.  As you see from the photo above, the DeRhodes House displays many of the features for which Wright became famous.  The emphasis on the horizontal line of the prairie, the grouping of windows to form a visual continuous band, light screens (that is, leaded glass casement windows drawing their inspiration from nature), broad overhanging eaves making use of the concept of the cantilever, hidden front door, a blending of interior and exterior spaces, here represented by the front (and rear) terraces, prominent chimney massing, and a use of what today we might call an autumnal color pallet, outside and inside.  The use of a pale buff tone stucco with dark brown wood trim is quite typical of one of the exterior finishes Wright preferred in this period.

The view above is of the entry hall facing toward the reception area at the center of the main living space.  You can see to the right one of the two identical entry doors, the other is to the far left outside the edge of this photo.  The other door faces toward the street, while this door faced toward the back of the property.  Both are graced by elaborate leaded glass designs.  The stairs ascend to the main level of the house.  You can see one of two pairs of leaded glass bookcases, that help to define the three main living spaces.  At the center is the reception room, and to the right between and beyond those two green floor vases is the dining room at the back of the house.  The living room is to the left, to the front of the house.  Together the living room, reception room, and dining room, created one very large continuous rectangular space, perfect for entertaining large groups, as well as serving as the focus of family daily life.

Above is a view of the main features of the living room, including the windows facing the front of the house, and the large fireplace.  Notice the banding of wood both on the walls and on the ceiling.  These serve to tie the space together, with continuous lines.  The radiators are hidden, the fireplace is huge, the windows  are also quite large, providing a sweeping view of the neighborhood, while also limiting the passer-by's view into the space, because it is raised half a story above the level of the sidewalk and street.  The house thus achieves an effect of being in a tree house or raised pavilion.  Some of the furniture in the room is of the period, by Stickley or Limbert or similar Mission Style makers. This is a good alternative for owners of Prairie School Wright houses, if they do not have the furniture Wright designed for the home; indeed, Wright often advised his clients to use Stickley and Limbert furniture for the private rooms in their homes. The original Wright-designed furniture was dispersed upon the sale of the house in the 1950's and its current whereabouts are unknown.  Note also the vintage art pottery on display.  Wright usually specified Teco Pottery for his homes.  

The living room fireplace is shown in the view above.  It has some typical Wrightian features, including bold geometric forms, Roman brick which is longer and lower than standard brick, and a prominent place in the room.  Here you can also see to the left of the fireplace one of the window light screens and discern the geometric detail.  This inverted triangular stylized flower motif is used throughout all of the windows and interior bookcase doors in the house.

The side view of the house gives some idea of the grand horizontal rectangular sweep of the floor plan.  From this angle you can see the entry hall (the one story portion of the house closest to the driveway).  At the far left is the front terrace.  Note the continuous window bands of the second floor bedrooms, sheltered beneath the low hip roof with overhanging eaves.  Most of these design ideas were developed in Wright's Oak Park Studio, and were thereafter used by other Chicagoland architects and other architects throughout the midwest and beyond.  

The K. C. DeRhodes House was built for newlyweds Laura Caskey Bowsher DeRhodes and Kersey C. DeRhodes in 1906 by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a Prairie style home located at 715 West Washington Street in South Bend, Indiana. The home was carefully restored by its long-time owners over more than four decades and remains in private ownership. It is one of two Wright homes in South Bend, the other being the Herman T. Mossberg Residence. It is one of eight Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes in the state of Indiana.

The DeRhodes house floor plan is nearly identical to -- but a mirror image of -- the 1903-1904 Barton House in Buffalo, New York. Oriented south to north, the main floor is one large rectangular space subdivided by piers and low bookcases with light screens into three spaces: a reception area, a large living room with fireplace toward the south (front) and a large dining room with Wright's customary built-in china cabinets toward the (north) rear. An entry/foyer to the east and the stairway and kitchen wing to the west extend the plan into a cruciform shape. Terraces protected by low walls at the north and south ends of the house extend the living space into the surrounding landscape. The downstairs maid's room in this house has been converted to a half bath.

The celebrated rendering of the DeRhodes house by Wright's assistant Marion Mahony Griffin is considered by scholars to be among the best to emerge from the Oak Park Studio, and was thought so by Wright himself, who inscribed it "Drawn by Mahony after FLLW and Hiroshige"

About the clients:

Laura Caskey Bowsher DeRhodes (November 5, 1864 – May 27, 1952)

Laura Caskey was born in Ligonier, Indiana, the daughter of Lutheran clergyman Curtis Caskey and his wife Margaret. Before her marriage to Kersey C. DeRhodes, Laura Caskey was the second wife of South Bend industrialist-millionaire Nelson Prentice Bowsher (1845-1898), also a native of Ligonier, Indiana. Bowsher rose from being an inventor and master mechanic at the Oliver Chilled Plow Works to the proprietor of his own manufacturing business, N. P. Bowsher. By his first wife, Clarissa C. Hostetter, Bowsher had two sons, Delavan Denis Bowsher and Jay C. Bowsher. Prior to her marriage to DeRhodes, Laura lived in the Bowsher family home at 805 West Washington, South Bend.

Kersey C. DeRhodes (February 7, 1862 – March 25, 1944)

Kersey C. DeRhodes was born in Fairfield, Ohio, the son of farmer David and his wife Madi DeRhodes. After coming to South Bend in 1901, DeRhodes served as the cashier of the Merchant's National Bank (later the National Bank). He also served as the treasurer of the Williams-Forrest Machine Company. From 1923 to 1935, he was president of DeRhodes-Yarrick Motor Co., a Dodge Brothers motor car dealership in South Bend. His residence before his marriage to Laura C. Bowsher was at 329 West Colfax Avenue, now the site of the First Presbyterian Church of South Bend. From a prior marriage, he had one daughter, Hazel M. DeRhodes (July 10, 1888 - January 1975), who lived with Kersey and Laura DeRhodes in their Wright designed home before moving to Detroit, Michigan, as an adult.

In early 1906, Laura C. Bowsher visited with her South Bend friend Isabel Roberts (of the Isabel Roberts House) in Berwyn, Illinois. Isabel was an architectural designer and draughtsman in Wright's Oak Park Studio and through Isabel, Laura met architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who was at the peak of his acclaim with the success of his prairie houses. She commissioned Wright's Oak Park studio to design a house for her to be located at 715 West Washington Street, which was to be completed in time to move into it with her new husband. In her AIA membership application  Isabel Roberts stated that she was the designer of this house, although since it came from Wright's studio when she was an employee and architectural designer there, it has always been attributed to him.

On September 22, 1906, in Berwyn, Illinois, Laura Caskey Bowsher and Kersey C. DeRhodes were married; the officiating minister was Frank Lloyd Wright's uncle, the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones.

Laura and Kersey DeRhodes lived in their Wright-designed house the rest of their lives; they were South Bend social and civic leaders. DeRhodes' later business pursuits included the Vernon Clothing Company, the DeRhodes Motor Company (selling Dodge automobiles and Graham trucks). The DeRhodes were members of the First Methodist Church of South Bend. Laura was a member of the Progress Club.

Laura DeRhodes was still living in the house in 1940 when she was interviewed by Wright researcher Grant Manson, whose notes of the interview are in the Oak Park, Illinois public library. Laura lived in the house for the rest of her life, dying there in May 1952. Both are buried in the Highland Cemetery Mausoleum, South Bend.

"Shortly after Laura Bowsher's death," the current owner says, "Frank Lloyd Wright visited South Bend to deliver a lecture at the University of Notre Dame. He tried to buy back the original items from the home." Instead, contents went to Laura's four principal heirs.

In her will, Laura DeRhodes left the Wright-designed home to the First Methodist Church of South Bend to be used as a parsonage, but it never served that function. The household goods were to be divided among First Methodist Church (who selected only the baby grand piano), the Progress Club (which took only the lawn mower and silver), the YWCA and the Camp Fire Girls (who received about half of the home's furnishings including the fire screen and andirons).

The later whereabouts of the furnishings remain unknown.

In 1954 the Methodist Church sold the house. It was used by a Masonic lodge as the Avalon Grotto clubhouse from 1954 until 1978. During that time, much of the interior was painted and the main fireplace was covered over.

In 1978, Thomas and Suzanne Miller of South Bend bought the home for $67,000, the South Bend Tribune reported, and completed a total restoration over the next several decades. Tom Miller died in 2018 and Suzanne Miller died on May 10, 2021. In the spring of 2021, shortly before Suzanne’s death, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy recognized the significant work that the Millers did to preserve and restore the DeRhodes House by honoring them with its coveted Wright Spirit Award. The award was introduced in 1991 and recognizes the efforts of extraordinary individuals and organizations that have preserved the legacy of Wright through their tireless dedication and persistent efforts.

The house remained in the Miller family in August 2021, when it was placed on the market with a asking price of $750,000.