Spirit Of Frank Lloyd Wright Bed & Breakfast

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio)

January 25, 2004 Sunday, Final / All

SECTION: SUNDAY MAG; Pg. 8

LENGTH: 1502 words

HEADLINE: The Wright Place;
Tucked away in Willoughby Hills is the little-known and recently restored Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Penfield House.

BYLINE: Kathleen Murphy Colan, Special to The Plain Dealer

BODY:
Spaces

Like moths to a campfire, they come. Curious travelers, starry-eyed students, serious scholars.

They come to the pastoral 30-acre former farm in Willoughby Hills seeking knowledge and inspiration.

They come for a glimpse of one of the 20th century's finest examples of Usonian architecture, beautiful, affordable housing that seems to sprout from the earth like a proud oak tree in perfect harmony with its natural surroundings. They come to marvel at an example of the architect's vision of housing for the average American family, homes with a simple, yet highly livable sensibility that he designed between 1936 and 1959.

They come to spend the night with the spirit of Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect of Penfield House, one of 60 Usonian homes he designed during his 70-year career.

Wright drew the plans for the house on River Road in 1953 for Louis and Pauline Curtiss Penfield. The 1,800-square-foot, two-story home is now owned by their son, Paul Penfield. It's one of 11 Wright-designed homes in Ohio and one of two in the country that allow overnight guests. (Seth Peterson Cottage in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, is the other.)

In keeping with his Usonian vision, Wright charged the Penfields $2,500, 10 percent of the $25,000 cost to build the house in 1955. Even after completing plans for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Wright continued to design homes for everyday people. That commitment is one reason Wright still inspires a following today.

"He really proved himself as one of the most innovative and unique architects of the 20th century. Wright's work exudes who he is much like Frank Gehry's work does," says Paul Penfield. Gehry is the world-famous architect who designed the Peter B. Lewis Building at Case Western Reserve University.

Wright's vision to blend the interior and exterior of each Usonian design with its surrounding environment results in a blurring of the conventional lines of where nature ends and civilized society begins. It is perhaps what sets him apart from other architects of the day.

"His Usonians are about living with nature, interchanging the outside with the inside," says Penfield.

Wright certainly accomplished his goal with Penfield House. Inside it feels like nature's prettiest blanket is wrapped around the house. Magnificent, two-story windows stretch 25 feet across the length of the living room, creating a definitive but thin barrier against the outside world. Rich cherry wood cabinets and countertop run for 28 feet in the galley kitchen. A fountain gurgles at one end of the living room while the crackle of a fire in the cement block hearth draws attention to the other end.

Paul, 58, grew up in the house and inherited it and the original Ward Farm House from his mother - she and Louis divorced in 1981 - when she passed away in 1983. The house sits on the old Ward Farm property, which has been in Pauline's family since 1876. In her later years, Pauline rented the Wright house property to transients and neglected to attend to its upkeep. When Paul acquired it, the house was in serious disrepair.

After inheriting the property, Paul left England, where he had lived and worked for 10 years as a traveling musician.

He moved into the farmhouse and shortly after met his second wife, Donna, now 62, through friends. She was an art teacher with the Mayfield City Schools. The two married in 1992.

For almost two decades, Paul and Donna planned to restore Penfield House. But first they renovated the Ward Farm House, which is now occupied by tenants, and converted an old farm-hand building into the cozy one-story cottage with two lofts where they live today.

Paul worked as a union plumber and spent his spare time learning new skills such as carpentry, welding and logging so that he could restore Penfield House himself. Donna continued to teach art classes in Mayfield.

Four years ago, Paul and Donna felt they were ready to begin restoration and obtained financing. Paul knew he wanted to continue Wright's vision of the place. "Wright was about building things of the land, not on the land, and it was very important to me that we stay true to that idea."

To update the interior with built-in cabinets, furniture and fixtures, Paul harvested cherry trees that dot the property. He collected stones from the Chagrin River to repair the foundation and consulted with Canton architect John Origlio to resolve aesthetic and design issues.

Origlio, a member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, a Chicago-based group that facilitates the preservation of the remaining Wright structures through education, advocacy, preservation easements and technical services, most recently helped restore the Frank Lloyd Wright Dobkins House in Canton.

Origlio says he likes the challenge of working with "do-it-yourself clients, not institutions with deep pockets."

"Wright would have wanted it that way," he adds.

The architect helped the Penfields make modifications that solved some of the original design problems common to Wright's designs: Poor insulation and sun glare.

Origlio recommended insulating the concrete block walls, so Paul drilled small holes in the block - usually behind cabinets and in hidden locations - and then pumped in liquid foam insulation. Afterward, he patched the holes. "You can hardly tell we did anything," he says.

To reduce heat and sun glare from the two-story, floor-to-ceiling windows, Origlio suggested applying a high-tech film. Penfield hired the Suntrol Company of Bedford Heights to install the light-green-tinted film.

He is still working to correct one remaining problem with Wright's structure: The flat roof sags. Later this year, Paul plans to peel back the rubber membrane and add carbon fiber beams diagonally to the existing wood beams to resolve the problem.

While Paul and Origlio worked out construction details, Donna spent time on the decor, focusing on purchasing items from the 1950s. She stocked the cupboards with magazines and books from the era. She placed a stack of recordings by Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Judy Garland next to an old record player.

A working antique Remington typewriter and stacks of paper sit on a desk in one of the three second-floor bedrooms. Vintage cookbooks and drink recipes fill one cupboard in the galley kitchen. "People look into everything in this house and we encourage them to do so," Donna says with pride.

Other hints of days gone by include a black rotary-dial telephone, a salmon-colored square bathtub and a working fireplace intended as one of the home's main heat sources.

Penfield House opened for business as a short-term rental in March 2003 and has been booked with guests almost every weekend since. (The house sleeps five and costs $275 a night, with a two-night minimum stay. It is available seven nights a week.)

Adventurous guests who explore the property find plenty to keep them busy. The land, which gently slopes down to the Chagrin River, is home to lush flora and fauna including deer, fox and hawks. On mild days, guests can fish, wade or just enjoy the sounds of nature. "We tell everyone to bring boots," Donna says.

A dilapidated art studio sits about 200 feet from the house, and guests often wander in and are fascinated. It was built by Louis Penfield in the Sixties. Louis, an art teacher with the Mayfield City Schools from 1954 to 1974 and an accomplished artist, won the May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1952 for his landscape chalk drawing, Willoughby. It hangs in the Penfield Gallery at the Willoughby Public Library.

Louis copied Wright's style for the three-room structure, which he built with materials from the land. Today, it's littered with forgotten pieces of sculpture, ironwork and tools.

"We hope to renovate it someday and give art classes," says Donna.

Louis died in 2002 at the age of 84. Upon his father's death, Paul inherited a set of Wright plans and 41/2 additional acres on the Ward Farm property where his father had planned to build a second home. In 1959, Louis and Pauline had hired Wright to design the house set farther back in the woods after they found out that Interstate 90 might intersect their property and ruin the quiet of Penfield House.

The highway never came, and Louis spent much of his life planning and hoping to build the second home.

A colorized drawing of the plans hangs in a hallway in Penfield House. "Someday we'll build it," Paul says.

For now, Paul and Donna are busy playing host to guests at Penfield House.

"The best way to understand Wright's architecture is to live in it," Paul says.

"It's not a house museum, so there are no crowds, docents or velvet ropes."

Kathleen Murphy Colan and Frank Lloyd Wright both use their mother's birth names as middle names. She may be reached through magmail@plaind.com.

INFORMATION BOX, PAGE 11:

To inquire about renting Penfield House, call 440-942-9996, visit www.penfieldhouse.

com or e-mail penfieldhouse1@cs.com.



GRAPHIC: PHOTOGRAPHY CREDIT: C.H. Pete Copeland PHOTO CAPTIONS: PAGE 8: "We can never make the living room big enough, the fireplace important enough, or the sense of relationship between exterior, interior and environment close enough, E" Wright wrote in a 1948 issue of Architectural Forum about his Usonian designs. PAGE 9, TOP: Frank Lloyd Wright designed Usonian homes around what he called the open "service core" of a kitchen (top left), bath and hearth. Canton architect John Origlio created space for an under-the-counter refrigerator in the Penfield House. PAGE 9, CENTER: One thousand square feet of glass (middle left) allows for unobstructed views from the dining room. "It's like a theater of the outdoors," says Donna Penfield. At night, guests turn off the lights and watch the wildlife from the 15-foot couch. PAGE 9, BOTTOM: The Penfields have spent about $100,000 on the restoration so far. Paul Penfield used Wright's original plans to build the banquette couch (below), table and chairs in the main living area. The space under the couch houses cleaning supplies. "Wright was famous for including hidden storage spaces in his designs," Paul notes. PAGE 10, TOP: Everything about Penfield House is elongated in deference to original owner Louis Penfield, who was 6 feet 8 inches tall and thin. The floating staircase (above left), which leads to three bedrooms on the second floor, is only 24 inches across. PAGE 10, BOTTOM: "Guests tend to tiptoe through the place and end up leaving it as nice as they found it, often doing the dishes and making the beds," says Paul Penfield. The second largest of the three bedrooms (left) is filled with folk art from around the world, including an African thumb piano and rattle on the shelves. The lamp is an Arts and Crafts style reproduction. The bed, in accordance with Wright's design, has a wooden frame to hide the box spring. PAGE 11, LEFT: Donna Penfield chose this high-back wicker chair for the second bedroom to mimic Wright's designs. The basket is filled with art and architecture magazines. To furnish the house, Donna shopped at City Buddha, A Thousand Villages, Pier One and Crate & Barrel. PAGE 11, INSET TOP RIGHT: A picture of Wright and a replica of his hat and cane sit on a shelf over the main seating area. "We thought it would be fun to make it look as if Wright had just stopped in for a minute to visit," Donna Penfield says.