Group saves Wright's only Prairie-style house in Ohio

Frank Lloyd Wright designed the 1904 Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio, for auto manufacturer Burton Westcott. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy bought it in September for $300,000

In this story: 'He sculpted the site' One of early works Hard to say goodbye Restoring as public museum RELATED STORIES, SITES

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) -- For 16 years, Sherri Snyder has lived at the Westcott House, the only Prairie-style house in Ohio designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

For 16 years, she patched and painted the turn-of-the-century mansion and packed away valuable fixtures in hopes of one day restoring the original look of a home that had been chopped into apartments.

In September, Snyder turned the job over to the experts, selling the house for $300,000 to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. It is the first time the Chicago-based conservancy has bought a Wright house in order to save it.

"I just want to make sure that everything stays intact," she says.

The conservancy was formed in 1989 to protect and preserve Wright houses. About 100 of Wright's houses and outbuildings have been lost over the years -- either torn down, destroyed by fire or remodeled to the point where the original design cannot be seen.

The Westcott House is one of about 350 Wright houses remaining in the world and 11 in Ohio.

"It's certainly the most important single work of art in Springfield, Ohio, possibly also in the southern part of Ohio," says Mark Chepp, director of the Springfield Museum of Art. "And I think a case could be made that it may be the most important 20th-century building in the state of Ohio simply because it's the only Frank Lloyd Wright house from this period."

The sprawling, two-story stucco house sits low to the ground, paying homage to the horizontal. A nearly flat roof with overhanging eaves covers a band of windows. An outside connecting wall puts its arms around the home, a courtyard and carriage house.

John Thorpe, the conservancy's vice president for technical services, says Wright was usually involved in the site planning and landscaping.

Sherri Snyder spent 16 years in the home, which is one of about 350 Wright houses remaining in the world

"He sculpted the site to create a platform to put the house on," Thorpe says.

Out front is a terrace, a reflecting pool and two massive flower urns. Inside, low ceilings, stained-glass skylights and an open, multilevel layout give a spacious feeling.

"It's kind of hard to overstate the significance of the house," Chepp says. "All the elements that went on to become hallmarks of prairie style are present in this house."

Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, in 1867, Wright developed an American architecture not based on European precedents. His horizontal, wide-open houses that featured carports and radiant heating influenced design and changed the way many Americans lived.

The Westcott House was among Wright's early works. He built it in 1904 for Burton Westcott, whose company manufactured luxury touring cars. The house had 12 rooms, including a 20-foot by 60-foot family room, five bathrooms, a patio terrace, cantilevered porches, courtyard, pergola and carriage house featuring a car-sized turntable for forward-gear only autos of the time.

The radical design of the $15,000 house raised eyebrows in the community at the time.

"It seems the house was ridiculed because it was so different," says Chepp. "I've got to think it must have looked like a spaceship sitting out there."

Snyder first saw the house when she was a child, spotting it from the back seat of a car.

"I've always loved it," she says.

She later married Ken Snyder, not knowing his aunt owned the house. The couple became caretakers of the home in 1984, and five years later bought the property. Since the main house had tenants, the Snyders lived in the carriage house and spent nearly every waking moment trying to repair and maintain the property.

Chepp says the Snyders were good stewards, investing both their financial and emotional resources.

"I would say they were as much responsible for keeping the house from going into total wreck and ruin as one could expect from a normal home," he says. "These kinds of houses are just tremendous money pits to maintain."

When Ken Snyder was killed in a car accident in 1992, Sherri Snyder found herself on her own. She said she decided to sell the house after the conservancy made an offer, and has bought another house.

Leaving is hard, though.

"I don't want to talk about it," an emotional Snyder says in a recent interview. "I'm trying right now to busy myself so I don't have to think about it."

"She acknowledged she was in over her head financially," Thorpe says. "She was very receptive to selling it to us."

The conservancy plans to resell the house to a locally formed foundation that intends to raise the estimated $2.7 million it will take to restore the home so the public can tour it as a museum.

"It seems to be structurally sound," Chepp says. "Cosmetically, it has suffered a variety of indignities over the years."

The house will be restored to as close to its original state as possible, down to the exact composition of stucco and plaster and the colors of paints. Original doorknobs and towel bars saved by Snyder will be installed, and furniture will be replicated to match the original.

Chepp hopes the museum will open in 2003, and expects it to be a national attraction.

Matt Cline, who manages the property, says he was recently at the house when a man from Pakistan stopped by and "begged to see the inside."

"It's not a masterpiece," he says, "but it's important."

The Ohio Preservation Alliance had put the house on its list of 10 most endangered Ohio sites for 2000-01.

"What should be one of Ohio's premier architectural gems, and which could become a site of statewide pride and importance, is disintegrating," the Columbus-based group had said on its Web site.

Stu Koblentz, president of the group, says he was overjoyed to learn that the house will be restored.

"For Springfield, to have such a jewel in its midst, you can't put a value on that," Koblentz says.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
"Frank Lloyd Wright: Designs for an American Landscape," 1922-1932 (Library of Congress exhibit)
Frank Lloyd Wright (Great Buildings Online)

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