A little over a hundred years ago, Springfield, Ohio was a thriving city and Burton Westcott was one of its most successful businessmen. He was in the farm implement business and later built luxury touring cars. Burton wanted a new house, one that would set him apart from other rich men whose mansions lined National Road. So he bought property on National Road, out near the edge of town. Then he hired a young, progressive, up and coming architect from Chicago to create a plan and bring it to completion: Frank Lloyd Wright.
I went there yesterday. After a century of privilege and prestige, decline and decay; the house stands restored. Owned and operated by a non profit trust, the Westcott House is one of Wright’s lesser accomplishments but so said, the earth is one of God’s lesser accomplishments as well. It is the only FLW house I’ve ever been inside but that will not be for long. Do I feel a road trip coming on? When you learn about the man, you can't avoid the dark side of his personality and of failures in his private life but how many of us have failed at one of life’s venues? Van Gogh was a failure and a drunk most of his life. If his brother hadn’t guided his career and rescued him, year after year, there would have never been a “Starry Night”.
What struck me, and I knew it by his reputation but taken for granted; the details. With nothing left to chance, no detail was trivial. From the unusual angle at which the floor boards were sawed, to highlight the the wood’s grain, to the way the house was oriented to make use of natural daylight, it lets you know you are in a special place. When I first saw the Grand Canyon it took my breath away, in a heart beat. The Westcott House took my breath away, one detail at a time. Any well intended person can screw up their private life. But who could have envisioned windows and skylights with their ever changing, geometric shadows playing across the floors and up the walls, all day? I don’t know.
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