Ohio History Journal

STEPHEN SIEK

 

Frank Lloyd Wright's

Westcott House in Springfield

 

To investigate the career of Frank Lloyd Wright from 1893 to 1910 is

to examine a period of architectural thought so rich that later historians

would term this era: Wright's "First Golden Age."¹ The automobile

and the airplane were two inventions that became synonymous with the

advent of the twentieth century, but no less innovative were the at-

tempts of Frank Lloyd Wright to develop an architecture indigenous to

American life, an architecture that exemplified concepts so radical

that they were to challenge the core of all architectural convention

throughout the remainder of his seven-decade career. Central to an

understanding of Wright's early work is the "Prairie House," his unique

contribution to domestic architecture befitting midwestern America.

The Prairie house is somewhat elusive to define, but there is little

serious opposition to the view that Wright is the originator of the

genre. Isolated examples of Prairie houses can be found as far east

as Rochester, and one even made its way to Montreal, but the flatter ter-

rain and variable climate of the American Middle West held the great-

est fascination for the young architect at this time, and by far the great-

est concentration of these homes is in the immediate Chicago area.

Wright was especially intrigued by the problems of residential building

throughout his career, and many features now taken for granted in

American homes can not only be traced to him, but may in fact be the

results of a concerted attempt to "invent" an architecture that shunned

artifical inspiration, and which owed no allegiance to pre-existing forms

or styles.

Today, many of Wright's early homes have a gripping, almost shock-

ing impact on the observer who attempts to place them in their original

historical context: the streamlined embraces of concrete, stone, or Ro-

man brick; the rhythmic, fluid repose of casement windows that wrap

 

Stephen Siek is an Instructor in the Music School at Wittenberg University. The author

acknowledges the continued assistance of Mr. George Berkhofer, Executive Director of

the Clark County Historical Society, for aid with research pertaining to the Westcotts and

the social and political history of Springfield.

 

1. Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Grant Carpenter Manson were two such historians.

Cf. Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The First Golden Age (New York, 1958).

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effortlessly around the structure in a seeming negation of finite bound-

aries; the built-in furnishings, the indirect lighting, and the electric-

coil heating seem sharply incongruous with an era adorned by cobble-

stone streets, gaslights, and horse-drawn carriages. Indeed, many early

photos of these homes have a startling effect when they happen to cap-

ture some incidental reminder of the early 1900s-such as children play-

ing in the costume of the day: it appears oddly anachronistic.² Frank

Lloyd Wright's early clients needed considerable courage and vision to

be content in the homes he built for them.

Whatever his motive Springfield businessman and civic leader Bur-

ton J. Westcott was the only man in Ohio to seek Wright's services in

the "First Golden Age." He was born in Richmond, Indiana, in 1868,

and when he migrated to Springfield in March 1903, he was already a

man of considerable wealth and importance. His father, John W.

Westcott, was the founder and President of the Hoosier Drill Com-

pany, a Richmond-based firm noted for the production of farm-imple-

ments. He later founded, in 1896, the Westcott Carriage Company,

which enabled him to combine his business acumen with his love for

horses. After graduation from DePauw and Swarthmore, young Burton

Westcott took an active interest in both businesses, eventually rising to

the rank of Treasurer with the Hoosier Drill Company, and later (in

1903) becoming Treasurer of that firm's successor, the American Seed-

ing Machine Company, a corporation based in Springfield and created by

the merger of Hoosier, Champion, and several other important firms.

Undoubtedly Burton Westcott is best remembered as a manufacturer

of automobiles. For a number of years he had tried unsuccessfully to

interest his father in expanding to the production of motor cars, and

finally in 1916 he decided to bring the Westcott Motor Car Company to

Springfield, even as the Westcott Carriage Company continued in

Richmond as a separate enterprise. The newly-formed Springfield firm

manufactured a luxury touring car that enjoyed a brief popularity after

the First World War. Indeed, few automobiles could rival the Westcott

Touring Car in its splendor and craftsmanship. Full-page advertise-

ments, such as appeared in the October 9, 1920, Saturday Evening Post

indicate that the car boasted a nationwide following. Hand-assembled

from parts manufactured elsewhere, the Westcott was produced in

large buildings on Springfield's Warder Street. At one point the Clark

County Auditor's Office assessed the buildings and machinery at a value

of more than $150,000.

 

 

2. One such photo can be seen in Frank Lloyd Wright, A Testament (New York,

1957), 56. The photo of the Heath House (1905) in Buffalo seems to loom with an odd

sense of deja vu, when one studies the garb of the three children positioned in front of it.

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278                                          OHIO HISTORY

As a civic and political leader of Springfield, Burton Westcott ap- pears to have been extremely popular and successful. An early mem- ber of the Springfield Country Club, he was also a Director of the Lagonda National Bank, and served on the Springfield City Commis- sion from 1914 to 1922.3 He was elected President of the City Commis- sion in 1921, which was equivalent to the position of Mayor. A staunch Republican, he had admirers from both political parties, and there was general agreement that he helped to curb a fairly widespread corrup- tion in the city's administrative affairs. With the exception of an excellent study by Leonard K. Eaton,4 little has been written on the personalities and social character of the early clients of Frank Lloyd Wright, but if, as popular conjecture would sug- gest, they tended to be people of unusually independent tastes and de- sires, then Orpha Leffler Westcott (1877-1923) was typical of many wo- men who admired Wright and his work. No written record exists of any communication between the Westcotts and Wright,5 but according to   3. Newspaper obituaries at the time of his death in 1926 claim that Westcott joined the City Commission in 1916, however a photo of the Commission in session with West- cott seated at the table is on file at the Clark County Historical Society, and this photo is believed to date from 1914, the year the Commission was founded. This and other evidence clearly indicates that Westcott was, in fact, a Charter Member of the Comis- sion. 4. Leonard K. Eaton, Two Chicago Architects and Their Clients: Frank Lloyd Wright and Howard Van Doren Shaw (Cambridge, 1969). 5. Mr. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Director of Archives for the Frank Lloyd Wright Me-

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Westcott House                                                           279

 

the best available data, it was she who instigated the architect's com-

missioning, and she may have journeyed on several occasions to his

studio in Oak Park, outside of Chicago, to discuss the project. Orpha

Westcott possessed an unusual aesthetic nature. An independent wo-

man interested in the modern, the beautiful and the unusual, she re-

mained somewhat distant, perhaps aloof, from the provincial elite that

dominated Springfield's social life in the first decade of the century.⁶

Unafraid of the avant guard, Mrs. Westcott enrolled her son John in

the original Montessori School on a lengthy 1911 visit to Italy.⁷ During

the same trip she ordered hand-tailored frocks and dresses for her

daughter Jeanne, woven from fabrics that she purchased there. Four

years later she was to foster a new interest for her son: short-wave

radio.⁸

If the social position of the Westcotts remained open to some ques-

tion during the years when Wright designed their house, little doubt

can be cast on their financial standing. It was substantial, and the ob-

vious affluence of the Westcotts lends credence to a charge frequently

hurled at Wright: that he built homes only for the rich. Certainly a pat-

tern of wealth and some social prominence tends to characterize the

majority of his clients, but as Grant Manson and other commentators

have noted, it is highly improbable that, owing to their radical features,

these early homes could have been built had their owners been depen-

dent on conventional financing.⁹ Whatever fees may have been as-

 

 

morial Foundation, offers an interesting explanation of this fact: Mr. Wright virtually

never wrote letters to people; in fact few of his clients lack at least one story of how they

were once infuriated by one of his suprise visits. It is probable that the Westcotts wrote to

Wright on several occassions, but a great deal of early correspondence was lost when the

Oak Park Studio was dismantled in 1909, and over the years two serious fires at Taliesin,

Mr. Wright's Wisconsin home, undoubtedly destroyed much of value (Author's interview

with Pfeiffer, August 31, 1976).

6. Between the years 1903 and 1910 Springfield social gatherings with prominent

guest-lists rarely include the Westcotts. One notable exception appears in The Springfield

Gazette on July 11, 1907, indicating that the day before Mrs. Westcott had entertained the

Bridge Whist Club at the Springfield Country Club, a club that tended to be composed of

younger more "newly arrived" families. In any event, there can be no question that in

later years, the Westcotts were clearly one of the community's most outstanding, highly

regarded families.

7. Ironically and fortunately, one of her interests was abruptly thwarted: the family

had evidently booked passage for their homeward journey on the White Star Liner

Titanic, but when a member of their party fell ill, they had to return by another boat. I

am greatly indebted to Mrs. John Westcott, daughter-in-law to Burton and Orpha West-

cott, for providing the bulk of the information concerning her husband and his family

(Author's interview with Mrs. John Westcott, August 13, 1976).

8. The family spent a summer near Ithaca, New York, about 1915, and Mrs. Westcott

found a Cornell professor to help instruct her son in the new science. Westcott interview.

9. See Manson, Wright to 1910, 79, for a discussion of the view that Wright always

demanded large budgets when he worked.

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280                                                           OHIO HISTORY

 

sessed by Wright, the contractor, or others involved with the project,

the client was undoubtedly obliged to advance the entire amount

through his own means in the majority of instances.10

How and when Mrs. Westcott first encountered Wright's work is un-

known, but she often accompanied her husband to Chicago on the fre-

quent business trips he made for the Hoosier Drill Company, and there

she may have seen some of Wright's newly constructed homes in the

neighboring suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest. It is also possible

that she may have seen some of the drawings Wright had published a

few years previously in the Ladies Home Journal.11 Exactly when the

Westcott House was first conceived and drawn is also unknown. If a

"presentation drawing" was made it no longer exists, although there

are several drawings of the structure executed by Wright for various

publications between about 1904 and 1910. An early drawing of a pro-

posed dwelling for Burton J. Westcott of Springfield, Ohio, appears as

Plate 45 in the Wasmuth Manuscript, the first important collection de-

voted to Wright's work, published in Germany in 1910.12 This design

was evidently Wright's original conception of the residence, and

though it is undated, it appears on the same page as the project draw-

ing for a residence in Oak Park, dated 1904.¹³ Neither design was ever

executed, but it is possible that they both date from 1904. Exactly why

either Wright or the Westcotts later chose another design is uncertain:

the major difference between the two plans would seem to be that the

 

 

10. The problem proved extremely frustrating to Wright throughout his career, even

after his fame was securely established. It grew particularly acute during the Depression,

when he designed many homes that could have been executed for far less money than

many FHA-approved projects, but their radical design often proved an impediment to

their actual construction. Cf. Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House (New York, 1954).

11. The February 1901 issue of the Ladies Home Journal featured drawings and an

article by Wright called "A Home in a Prairie Town." This may be the first instance of his

actual use of the term "Prairie House." The article was one of several that would appear in

the magazine and served to help publicize his work.

12. The full title of the work is: Augsefuhrte Bauten und Entwurfe von Frank Lloyd

Wright (Berlin, 1910). The work was a portfolio of exquisite architectural drawings and

plans, designed to have appeal to European architects interested in Wright's work. The

lavishness and expense of the edition, however, precluded a wide distribution and caused

Wasmuth to issue the following year a smaller book called simply Ausgefuhrte Bauten.

This work was truer to its title as it contained only "Executed Constructions"-it consisted

mostly of photographs of buildings already in existence and some plans, while the earlier

work contained projects that Wright had not actually built. The titles can be confusing,

because both works are sometimes referred to as the Wasmuth Manuscript, and no photo-

graphs of the Westcott House appear in Ausgefuhrte Bauten. During the First World

War the plates at Wasmuth's were bombed; hence any reproductions since then have

been done from copies already in existence. A facsimilie edition called Buildings, Plans

and Drawings was published in 1963 (New York).

13. The H. J. Ullman House, intended to stand at the corner of North Euclid Avenue

and Erie Street in Oak Park. The house was never built.

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Westcott House                                                         281

 

chimney faces east and west in the original drawing, and correspond-

ingly, a good deal of the ground floor faces east and west, causing it to

meet perpendicularly with the second floor. As might be expected the

front garden-type facade is considerably rearranged to accommodate this

change in the exterior: there are high ballustrades buttressing the con-

crete steps, surrounding what appears to be a patio. The sole discerni-

ble entrance is evidently reached from a walkway running from Green-

mount Avenue to the ground-floor protrusion-the entrance, not visible

in the drawing, is evidently housed underneath the front terraces.

The design materialized in its final form by early 1907. In April of

that year Wright exhibited a drawing of the re-worked project in the

Chicago Architectural Club Show, and in March of 1908 he inserted this

same drawing with others from his portfolio into the Architectural

Record, this issue being devoted largely to his works.¹⁴ The front-eleva-

tion view shown in this drawing almost approaches a type of aerial

perspective. The garden facade is somewhat simpler than it was ac-

tually built, indicating that at first Wright evidently favored a simple

pool in front, inset into the lawn, with all features of the tile work being

flush with the ground. By 1910 Wright, now living in Italy, had little to

guide him save this early drawing, hence it seems likely that when he

prepared Plate 75 for the Wasmuth Manuscript he was obliged to re-

call the exact features of the completed facade from memory, perhaps

explaining the subtle discrepancies between his Wasmuth drawing and

the design as it was actually executed.15 Plate 75 is by far Wright's

most detailed and attractive drawing of the house, and it bears his cap-

tion:

Plastered walls, tile roof, cement base courses and ground work. House of the

large living room type; the necessary privacy for various functions obtained by

screens, contrived as bookcases, and seats besides [sic] the central fireplace.

In front, a tiled terrace, to be covered with awning in summer, and a lily pool,

flanked with large cast concrete vases.

The grounds are terraced above the street.¹⁶

 

 

14. Careful readers of the Record may be jarred by the sight of a plan on p. 220 of the

March 1908 issue, captioned: "Residence of Mr. B. J. Westcott," which in fact has

nothing to do with the actual plan of the Westcott House. It appears to be nothing more

than a mis-labeling of the plan for the house above it: the Millard House in Highland

Park, Illinois. Moreover, the caption underneath the drawing of the Westcott House on

p. 218 is misplaced, referring to the Elizabeth Stone House above it (a 1906 project

that was never built). In point of fact, the plan of the Westcott House has little or nothing

to do with the Coonley House at Riverside, Illinois, as the caption implies.

15. A few of those discrepancies: in the drawing, there are too few front steps, the urns

are too small, and Wright appears to have envisioned a bit of a patio-walkway beyond the

lily pond, extending almost out to High Street.

16. Buildings, Plans and Drawings, Caption for Plate 75.

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282                                                   OHIO HISTORY

 

Plate 76 offers a plan of the ground floor, second floor, pergola,

garage and stable. Exactly at what point the plans for the pergola,

garage and stable materialized is an issue of some interest. The Was-

muth Manuscript dates the Westcott House as 1907, and one would

normally assume that the rest of the structure was conceived at the

same time, but Manson indicates that he once visited Wright at his

home in Wisconsin and there saw the original plans for the Westcott

pergola, garage and stable-these clearly dated in Wright's-own hand:

January 29, 1908.17 This is what undoubtedly leads him to suggest that

the garage arrangement and its connecting pergola may have been

something of a "happy afterthought."¹⁸ However, all existing draw-

ings of the house, some of which were done well before 1908, clearly

show the pergola, garage, and stable-they appear even in the unexe-

cuted version of the Westcott House, which is in the Wasmuth as Plate

45.

There may well be a gap of about three years between the time the

Westcotts first contacted Wright and the time he produced the com-

pleted design, a circumstance partially explained by the large amount

of work that passed through the Oak Park Studio at this time, and par-

tially by the fact that Wright was known to study his clients rather

carefully before actually working out a design. He came to Springfield

to live with the Westcotts for perhaps as long as two weeks, getting the

"feel" of the family and their domestic requirements. Though such be-

havior was uncharacteristic of many architects and would often have

proved unnecessary even for Wright, since he could study the majority

of his clients at close range, it appears in keeping with his practice, as

it was also typical for him to refuse any publicity or social engage-

ments when away from home.

Actual construction began on the Westcott House in the autumn of

1907. On July 16 of that year Burton Westcott purchased the site on the

northwest corner of East High Street and Greenmount Avenue from

John S. Crowell.¹⁹ On October 7, 1907, The Springfield Gazette re-

ported: "The foundation is being laid for a new residence for Burton J.

Westcott at the corner of High Street and Greenmount Avenue."²⁰ For

reasons unknown the house took longer to complete than it should

have, and an unusually large number of older Springfield residents to-

 

 

17. Notes for Manson, Wright to 1910, on file at Oak Park Public Library, Oak Park,

Illinois.

18. Letter to the author from Grant Carpenter Manson, dated December 25, 1976.

19. He paid Crowell $5,000 for the property. There was a small house on the site

which had to be demolished before construction could begin on the Westcott House (Clark

County Recorder's Office).

20. The Springfield Gazette, October 7, 1907, 3.

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284                                                       OHIO HISTORY

 

day recall that its construction was laden with problems. Some remem-

ber Wright's continued presence to be annoying and allege that

disgruntled workmen laid torches to the dwelling-so enraged were they

at his high-handed tactics. To be sure, the structure was set afire on

July 3, 1908:

For the second time within a month the fire department was called Friday

morning to the handsome new residence being erected by Burton J. Westcott

at High Street and Greenmount Avenue to extinguish a blaze caused by

painters at work in the house.21

The Springfield Daily News attributes this fire to "parafin," as well

as the earlier fire which it mentions in the article. Both fires appear to

have been accidental, and as one painter was somewhat seriously in-

jured on July 3, it certainly seems unlikely to have been deliberately

set. The Daily News notes that the cash loss of the second fire was

about $200, and that the first fire was not quite as serious. It further

mentions that the fire started while one of the painters was at work in

the kitchen, suggesting that if in fact the house's interiors were being

painted, construction must have been quite far along by this point.

These disruptions undoubtedly delayed the house's completion, but

whether due to the intricacy of Wright's design or to the frustration of in-

dividual workmen, the project necessitated an unusually long roster of

skilled laborers, many of whom replaced one another at successive in-

tervals.

Wright had the benefit of some of Springfield's finest builders.

William Poole, contractor for the house, had supervised the construc-

tion of numerous other homes on Springfield's then-fashionable east

side, where the Westcott site was located. The plumbing and electrical

work was handled by the firm of Crain-Stuart. Four electricians came

on the job successively: Donnel Morris, Jess Crane, Robert Jackson,

and finally, William Hicks, whose job it was to personally wire

Wright's intricate electrical fixtures inside the large dining room

table. Such work necessitated great precision, and the workers prob-

ably had little in the way of practical experience in dealing with such

novelties, but Mr. Hicks can recall no altercations with the architect,

and in fact remembers meeting him only once.²² In his absence, Wright

apparently had two near-surrogates in the persons of Mrs. Westcott

and her family physician, who was a close personal friend. The two

 

21. The Springfield Daily News, July 3, 1908, 2.

22. William Hicks is undoubtedly the last living man to have personally worked on the

house. Though nearing ninety when I interviewed him at his home in Springfield on

December 13, 1976, his mind was sharp and his memory vivid about numerous circum-

stances surrounding the house's construction.

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286                                                           OHIO HISTORY

 

women were constantly at the site, urging that tiles be laid properly

and joints mitered cleanly. When Wright did appear, his presence was

usually unobtrusive; the only documented tale of any friction between

architect and workmen comes from Thelma L. Reniff, formerly Librar-

ian of Springfield's Warder Public Library. At one point in the proce-

dures, Wright stood across the street from his emerging structure

(most probably in front of the Fifth Lutheran Church). A workman

approached Wright, mentioned that he had heard of him, but admitted

to being puzzled by the whole Westcott project, inasmuch as he was

certain that the architect "only built bungalows." Supposedly, Mr.

Wright then turned upon the man in a manner that suggested one need

not be angered by imbeciles, and wryly observed: "This is a bungalow

with a college education."²³

The date of completion, if in fact there was any one significant date,

cannot be pinpointed with any precision. The Springfield City Direc-

tory indicates that by 1909 the Westcotts had moved into their new

home, but the Clark County Auditor's Office does not appraise the prop-

erty at its full value until 1911, indicating that the house was not quite

finished until then.²⁴ It may be no coincidence that this was the season

Mrs. Westcott felt she could leave for Europe. The three earliest

known photos of the house were probably taken before the Westcotts

moved in-perhaps early in 1909-as the interior shots of the living room

and dining room appear to be somewhat stark and bare. The front

facade remains to be completed in the early photo. Among other

features it still lacks the large cast concrete urns-"Wrightian Urns" as

they were becoming known-a trademark with the architect's work, and

particularly distinctive in the Westcott facade, as they must surely be

some of the largest he ever designed for a private home. The first

photo known to show the completed facade was taken about 1912.25

As nearly as can be determined from existing records, Mr. Westcott

must have paid about $15,000 for his home.²⁶

 

23. Letter to Grant Manson from Thelma L. Reniff, dated May 8, 1940, on file at the

Warder Memorial Public Library, Springfield, Ohio.

24. 1914 is the first year that Clark County began to appraise dwellings and land

separately. In that year the Westcott House was appraised at $15,870, and the land at

$5,050, which is about what Westcott had paid Crowell for the land seven years earlier.

However, in 1910 both house and land were appraised at $10,250. The following year,

1911, both were appraised at $20,920, the sum total of the final value of house and land

together. In the year 1911 the house jumped in value by more than $10,000 indicating

that a great deal of construction work must have been done.

25. Mrs. John Westcott has a picture in her possession taken about this time, which

offers a rather stark and beautiful view of the house in winter.

26. Property was then appraised at 100 percent of its full value for tax purposes, and if

in seven years the land had appreciated by only 1 percent, it seems logical that the house

must have been built for somewhere in the $15,000 range.

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Westcott House                                                     287

 

As distinctive as it is, the Westcott House shares some fundamental

similarities with all of Wright's Prairie houses in its marked dis-

placement of the prevailing concepts of interior space. Gone are the

cubicles that heretofore suggested separate living, dining, and recep-

tion areas. On the ground floor a continuous plane of space serves

these functions, such separateness and privacy as required being pro-

vided by two wooden screens that protrude from the large, Roman

brick fireplace. Frank Lloyd Wright regarded the hearth as properly

the center of a family's life, hence he made it always large and invit-

ing. The fire cavity is surrounded by panes of glass, intentionally per-

mitted to crack and break from the heat over the years, lending a cer-

tain rustic aura to the setting. The fireside seats are built into the

protruding screens, which also house panel lighting fixtures of plate

glass, these casting an indirect-type illumination, several inches from

the floor; the screens also contain storage space for books. Of particu-

lar interest are two large floor lamps designed by Mr. Wright for the

living room, which cast indirect beams from glass polygons, decora-

ting the room after sundown with a kaleidoscopic array of illumina-

tion, reflected from his low, brightly painted ceiling. The fenestration

for the entire ground floor is common to other "Prairie Houses" in

this period, but wildly atypical of the times: a virtual unbroken ribbon

of casement windows. After the Westcotts settled in, the living room

displayed Mr. Wright's sole concession to another's taste: the rich,

silk draperies selected by Mr. Westcott's sister while she was travel-

ling in the Orient.²⁷

The unbroken plane of space was underscored by the dining area,

in which the dining table and the entire buffet fixtures virtually folded

into the wall. The mechanics of this design are difficult to reconstruct,

but an early photo of the dining interior suggests that the two halves

of the table were actually placed on top of each other and inserted into

corresponding slots in the wall. The buffet totally disassembled and

collapsed into drawers-Mr. Wright's distinctive chairs with their regal,

high backs must have likewise folded and collapsed.²⁸ Along the west

wall of the dining area even the radiators were concealed, housed in

cabinets, the heat escaping through register slats in the top of the cabi-

net. The radiators in the living room and the reception room were

similarly concealed beneath the sweeping casements. The two sever-

 

27. Westcott interview.

28. No photos are known to survive of the Westcott dining table when in use, but

Wright used a somewhat similar design in the Boynton House (1908) in Rochester, New

York, pictures of which can be seen in Eaton, Two Chicago Architects. John Westcott

confirms that these photos look rather similar to the table in his parents' home (Letter

to the author from Mrs. John Westcott, dated June 6, 1977).

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288                                           OHIO HISTORY

est corners of the ground floor, in the dining and reception areas, are softened by Wright's "wrap-around" casements, a device that has since become almost a trademark with his work. A cardinal element essential to the Prairie house was horizon- tality-the house should appear natural to its midwest setting, at home with the flatter horizon, and often as not, it would be elevated slightly, so as to give its occupant a view of the land around him. There is a natural slope to the Westcott site, which makes possible a full base- ment, a feature that is by no means found in all Wright's homes of this period, but despite the added depth, the Westcott House is unmis- takably suggestive of horizontality. The front elevation of the house measures exactly sixty-two feet, one inch in length from the east to the west wall.29 A gentle, sloping hip-roof, its wide eaves embracing the structure in a gesture of shelter, and the wide chimney which seems to negate all vertical lines, both serve to underscore the horizontality that Wright felt suited to the prairie terrain. The Westcott House is highly unusual for Wright's homes in at least   29. Taken from the original plans, copies of which are currently in the possession of Miss Eva Linton, the current owner of the house. All subsequent measurements are so taken.

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Westcott House                                               289

 

one respect: a strong, persistent garden theme dominates the front

yard. In front of the house, an unusual display of masonry and tile work

combined to form a terraced garden, reached easily by doors placed

symmetrically, on either side of the living room. From these entrances

the family could embark on an elevated patio of clay tile, above which

hovered an imposing metal grid of cantilevered beams designed by

Wright-this grid work serving as the support for a specially designed

awning in the summer. All planters and soilbeds were built into the

masonry of poured concrete, the whole of the design focusing on a

large wading pool more than twenty-two feet in width and forming a

totally unbroken plane of white masonry that seems to grow of its own

volition. The floor of the pool, designed by Wright as a lily pond, was

gravel over a clay lining and frequently would serve as a haven for

young John Westcott and several favored goldfish.³⁰ The whole of the

garden facade is offset brilliantly against the smooth, unbroken planes

of the house itself, which seems to float in space, suggesting both mo-

tion and repose. Downspouts appear nowhere on the exterior: there

are in fact no vertical intrusions to distract from the horizontal char-

acter of the dwelling, and one can imagine the demanding workman-

ship required to bury such necessities inside the exterior walls. The

walls themselves, coated with a cream-colored stucco, tended to glisten

brilliantly in the sunlight, offset only by continuous unbroken strips

of rich, stained oak, mitered around the corners of the house with in-

finite, painstaking precision.

The house seems not to terminate at its rear elevation, but rather

continues outward in a horizontal embrace, a continuous band of ma-

sonry which forms the pergola connecting the house with the garage

and stable at the rear of the property. On the opposite (west) side

of the property is the driveway, which ran northward from East High

Street and then turned to flank the rear of the property, extending

eastward toward Greenmount Avenue, and thus enclosing more of

Wright's contributions to the family's recreational life: clay tennis

courts and riding areas for the children's ponies. At the rear of the

house in the northwest corner was a 125-barrel cistern which collected

the rain water trapped by four basin receptacles at each corner of the

house, these being ultimately fed by Wright's carefully concealed

downspouting in the roofing and wall structures. This water was in

turn used for bathing, fed into Wright's large distinctive tubs by a third

spigot. On the west side of the house was a small door that served as

a compartment for the ice man to place his deliveries directly into

Wright's large built-in refrigerator unit. To Mr. Westcott's disdain, it

 

30. Westcott interview.

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290                                                  OHIO HISTORY

 

later proved attractive to would-be burglars as well.31 Along the west

wall, as well as other locations under casement ribbons were metal

flowerboxes, lined with zinc by Wright so as to forever stay off the ef-

fects of rust.

Although Frank Lloyd Wright was ever conscious of the demands

and requirements of building on the prairie, there are certain wider

principles that run through all of his work which can be seen even at

this time-philosophic principles concerning his view of the relationship

of man to his environment. Wright believed that man should feel com-

fortable with nature, rather than feel antagonistic to it, and his houses

bear numerous characteristics that might be written off as peculiarities

until one understands their significance. Many have noted the some-

what unusual positioning of entrances in his homes: one frequently

must search to find the front door, and the resultant puzzling array

of porticos, balconies, terraces, etc., seems cumbersome until one

senses that this is done deliberately, to negate any sharp sense of

"boundary" between indoors and outdoors-so that one is hardly aware

of the transition from one to the other. In the original 1904 drawing of

the Westcott House the entrance is so hidden that it cannot be pre-

cisely located. In the plan that was eventually used, the doors on the

front of the house which are visible from the street lead only to the

terrace-they cannot be used to receive callers. The main entrance for

this house is on the east side of the structure, facing Greenmount

Avenue. One climbs several steps, enters through a door, but still en-

counters some confusion and momentary anxiety, before rising to the

reception area on the next level, but even as one faces the fine oak

paneling of the entrance area, the genius of the architect begins to

assert itself.

The entrance area is heated by a type of suction: the large enclosed

radiators in the hall a few steps up have slats which permit the warm

air to rise and escape; in turn there are intake vents in the sides of

the cases to trap the colder air admitted by the front door, this air

then being heated by the hot pipes. In summer the ribbon of clere-

story casements, the bright yellow tints of their leaded glass patterns

creating a rubric of beautiful design across the room's interiors, open

to admit air, well over the heads of visitors and host. The hallway,

raised to ground level, is dominated by Wright's rich, oaken staircase

leading to the second floor, the vertical spindles of its bannisters and

ballustrades joined so neatly and closely that one is conscious only of

what seems to be an unbroken band of horizontality. Another leit-

motif that runs through all of Wright's work is his penchant for natural

 

31. Ibid.

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Westcott House                                                 291

lighting, and he at times goes to great lengths to include this in the plan. Directly above the staircase looms a spacious skylight of leaded glass, tinged with gold and issuing a brilliant flood of illumination, this light in turn being refracted from a similar skylight cut directly into the tiled roof. In the evenings lights placed a few inches above the steps themselves, in glass cases built directly into the plastered walls provide the necessary guidance. On the second floor Wright designed a total of six bedrooms. Mr. Westcott's quarters were at the southeast corner and Mrs. Westcott's at the southwest. Both suits were identical, quite large, and each con- tained a dressing room, fireplace, private bath and outdoor porches for warm weather sleeping. Mr. Wright's distinctive bathtubs were filled with water through a novel, circular-type faucet that tended to resemble a miniature water-fall when in use, and centered in the long wall of the tub rather than the more customary short wall. Somewhat unusual for Wright was his decision to enclose the radiator fixtures in cabinets here in the bedrooms as he did on the ground floor. One can only speculate as to his reasoning, but it is possible that he had some personal characteristic of the Westcotts in mind-perhaps Mr. West- cott was known to occasionally receive business associates here, us-

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292                                                           OHIO HISTORY

 

ing his large suite as something of an office.³² The suites are lavishly

appointed, with their large Roman-brick fireplaces and low ceilings,

offset with a wide ribbon of casement windows.³³ The windows are

not as easily opened as many designed today and it is possible that

Wright did not design them with the thought that they might one day

be screened, or he may have envisioned them remaining open more

or less constantly through the summer months, as the wide, protective

cave of his hip-roof virtually precludes the possibility of rain ever en-

tering the house. As always with his homes, the underside of this eave

is painted a bright off-white so as to reflect as much light as possible

into the room.

No less distinctive were the two bedrooms on the west wall of the

house designed for the two Westcott children, John and Jeanne. As

was his practice, Wright sought to keep the personalities of the two

children in mind as he worked. For son John there were special com-

partments built into the walls for toy soldiers, pistols, etc., and for

daughter Jeanne corresponding storage areas for dolls and dresses.

Two small bedrooms at the east side of the house, which the Westcotts

used as servant quarters, completed the upstairs pattern.

Sometime before 1920 the Westcotts had the lily pond filled in

with dirt and subsequently used it as a planter, perhaps strengthening

the floral aspects of the scene.³⁴ A     somewhat less apparent change

was their decision during the First World War to tear up the tennis

courts at the rear of the house to allow space for a Victory Garden.³⁵

In April of 1923 Orpha Westcott died suddenly in Philadelphia, fol-

lowing what should have been a routine sinus operation. Her death left

her husband somewhat despondent, and following the failure of the

Westcott Motor Car Company Mr. Westcott's health began to fail.³⁶

He died in his home early in 1926.³⁷

 

 

32. William Hicks recalls being so received by Mr. Westcott about 1920, when West-

cott engaged him to do some electrical work.

33. In Plate 76 in the Wasmuth Wright labels the southeast bedroom "Eltern Zimmer"

("Parents' Room") and the southwest bedroom "Eigenes Zimmer" ("Private Room")

indicating that the rooms were large enough to accommodate more than one, and that

perhaps could have been used as studys, offices, etc.

34. Mrs. Westcott, Interview.

35. Ibid.

36. Westcott's two chief suppliers were General Motors and Durant, both of whom

made frequent overtures to buy his firm. Eventually, the vulnerability of his small,

independent business proved debilitating, and Westcott was forced to sell to a syndicate

in 1924 after numerous corporate battles had badly drained him financially.

37. The importance and popularity of Burton Westcott to the city of Springfield can

be deduced by one fact alone: in the January 10, 1926, edition of The Springfield Daily

News the announcement of his death is page-one news, beset with banner headlines and

photo.

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Westcott House                                                           293

 

A severe alteration of the house's front facade occurred sometime

after Mr. Westcott's death, perhaps the work of its next owner, Roscoe

Pierce.³⁸ The sleeping porches at either side of the house were stuc-

coed over so that the split, terraced effect of first and second floor was

eliminated-the house became one solid mass from foundation to roof.³⁹

This change also destroyed access to a small terrace adjacent to Mr.

Westcott's quarters, above the entrance way.

The Westcott House is historically distinctive in that it was Frank

Lloyd Wright's first, and for many years only, commission in Ohio.⁴⁰

It is architecturally significant in that it employs a garden theme of

such dominant proportions, giving it a type of regal dignity that is

uncommon even to other Wright homes of the Prairie period.

Whether this reflected the architect's personal assessment of the char-

acter of his clients or simply a more general overture to beauty, he

obviously went to great lengths to design one of his more formidable

Prairie houses. The unusual aesthetic tastes and uncommon daring

of Burton and Orpha Westcott have given Ohio one of its most com-

pelling reminders of the genius of America's greatest twentieth-cen-

tury architect.⁴1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

38. Roscoe Pierce was a Springfield book merchant who bought the house in 1926

after Mr. Westcott's death and lived there himself until his death in 1941.

39. Exactly who was responsible for this alteration is a point of some contention. Mr.

and Mrs. John Westcott are certain that the only change made by the Westcotts was the

screening of these porches in summer-which may have been part of Wright's original

plan. At some point the screens were solidified into plaster, and certainly by about 1940

the house appeared virtually as it does today. In any event, whether done by Pierce or

not, the design today looks rather natural, and the added casement windows which com-

plement the pattern suggest that it may have been done by someone familiar with

Wright's work.

40. Indeed it would be some forty-odd years before Wright would again build in the

Buckeye State, returning for the Weltzheimer House in Oberlin (1948-1950), Guide

to Chicago and Midwestern Architecture (Chicago, 1963).

41. The Westcott House, owned since 1944 by Miss Eva Linton, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places through the efforts of the Ohio Historical Society in

1974.

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