News

These homes are just Wright

Associated Press
Published July 10, 2005

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WILLOUGHBY HILLS, Ohio - If Fallingwater is Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest work, then a house he designed in this Cleveland suburb is one of his most livable.

Owner Paul Penfield has opened up the Louis Penfield House to guests after spending four years restoring it to the iconic architect's original vision. It's one of three Wright houses in the country that allows Wright enthusiasts to spend the night. (The other two are in Wisconsin.)

Wright (1867-1959) has been recognized by the American Institute of Architects as the "greatest American architect of all time." He designed buildings to fit into their settings and viewed them as not just structures but as ideas that permeate the lives of their inhabitants.

Penfield's father, Louis, was a painter who became acquainted with Wright and asked him to design a house that would fit his 6-foot-8 frame. Wright generally designed short entryways but took on the project, charging $2,500 and including plenty of clearance space for Penfield's head.

Paul Penfield was a child when he accompanied his father to visit Wright at Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin. He remembers Wright as a stately man with long flowing white hair whose office was located at the end of a long corridor.

"He's portrayed as a curmudgeon, but he really wasn't," Penfield said.

The Penfield House was built in 1955 for $25,000.

Entering the house through slender double doors takes one past a floating wooden staircase, its steps suspended by rods from the ceiling. The entryway is like a bottleneck from which the home's spacious living area spills forth.

Floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides and a third half-wall of windows allow for a panoramic view of the wooded lot and give the feeling of being outside while indoors. The sound of trickling water from a fountain and the glow from built-in wooden light fixtures set a soothing mood.

The living area takes up most of the main floor and illustrates Wright's fondness for open space. The kitchen is a narrow ribbon with a long counter that works great for a buffet line.

"Here you really felt you were living with nature. That's what Frank Lloyd Wright wanted," said Marguerite Vonno, one of 300 people who have stayed at Penfield House since it opened for guests in 2003.

Matt and Cheryl Banning of Willoughby booked it first, using it for their wedding weekend, including pictures and the rehearsal dinner.

They returned a year later for their anniversary.

"It's 11 o'clock at night. You've got a fire going. It's your house," Banning said.

That's the way Penfield and his wife, Donna, intended it.

"We want to give people to chance to experience it as if they were the homeowners themselves," Penfield said.

At other Wright landmarks, visitors are shuffled on tours from room to room.

"Just walking through, you miss that sense of what it would be like to interact with it," Banning said.

The Seth Peterson Cottage in Lake Delton, Wis., was the first Wright home to open to guests, in 1992. Located in Mirror Lake State Park on a bluff overlooking the lake, the once boarded-up structure underwent a $350,000 renovation funded by donations.

The roomy Bernard Schwartz House in Two Rivers, Wis., opened in June 2004. Owners Terry Records and Jason Nordhougen teamed with Michael Ditmer, a Wright fan who does remodeling work, to renovate the four-bedroom house and share it with the public.

Wright is well known for grand homes, like Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania. Its setting atop a waterfall is a supreme example of Wright's organic architecture - an integration of nature and structure.

IF YOU GO LOUIS PENFIELD HOUSE: 2203 River Road, Willoughby Hills, Ohio; www.penfieldhouse.com or 440 942-9996. Rates: $275 a night, two-night minimum; sleeps five.

SETH PETERSON COTTAGE: 9982 Fern Dell Road, Lake Delton, Wis.; www.sethpeterson.org or 608 254-6551. Rates: $275 a night, two-night minimum; sleeps four.

BERNARD SCHWARTZ HOUSE: 3425 Adams St., Two River, Wis.; www.theschwartzhouse.com or 651 222-5322. Rates: $295 weeknights and $350 weekends with a two-night minimum; sleeps eight.

[Last modified July 8, 2005, 09:45:07]