For many years I’ve had a fascination with Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture.
We finally realized our dream of actually staying overnight in one of his houses. Only a small handful of Wright’s houses can actually be rented, and one of them happens to be right here in Ohio.
As someone who spends half his life in hotel rooms, when we travel together I like to find us unique places to stay.
This is the Louis Penfield House in Willoughby Hills. For those not from Ohio, it’s an upscale suburb on the east side of Cleveland.
The place wasn’t cheap, at $300 a night (two night minimum stay), but you could easily spend more than that on a big-city hotel room. For that we got the whole house to ourselves.
The house was built in 1955 for Louis Penfield. The legend has it that Penfield, who stood 6’8” tall, challenged Wright to design a house for someone of that stature. Wright himself was 5’7” and tended to build to his scale.
The house is unique in its high entranceway.
If you’ve ever toured one of Wright’s houses, you’d know that he liked to “compress” the entranceway to make the house itself seem more spacious once you stepped into it. In this case the tall doorway was to accommodate Mr. Penfield’s height.
The house itself is rather long and thin with panoramic windows all along the front.
This is one of Wright’s “Usonian” houses. These were meant to be affordable, middle-class housing.
Construction appears to be cinder blocks on a concrete slab with flat roofs. There is no attic or basement. I don’t think Wright liked basements. He also hated garages, as he felt they attracted clutter. Thus his signature carport.
I don’t know what the square footage is. The upstairs features three relatively small bedrooms plus a decent sized bathroom by 1955 standards. The downstairs features a small laundry room, a half bath, and a single large space that combines kitchen, living room and dining area.
The house is nestled back a ways from the road in a wooded area near the Chagrin River. The only bad thing about the location is it’s pretty close to I-90 and there is road noise spoils the otherwise peaceful setting.
Despite the minimalist appearance, there is a surprising amount of storage space in the house. There are little cubby-holes with doors built into most of the walls. The place isn’t that big but it makes good use of the available square footage.
Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. — Frank Lloyd Wright
A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines. — Frank Lloyd Wright
The view from the main room was probably the best part. We saw several deer plus one coyote.
I had no problem cooking in the relatively small kitchen. There is no oven, but it had a nice gas stovetop plus a microwave.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. — Frank Lloyd Wright
Our one bike ride was a bust. A light drizzle started right after we got going. By the time we turned back it had turned into a downpour. Even with rain gear we were both soaked after a mere 10 miles.
If I had one gripe, it was that the house smelled like a campfire from the large, open hearth. The previous renters must have had a fire in there because it was full of ash and burnt wood. Fine if you like that sort of thing but it played havoc with our allergies.
We almost bought a house like this once. Columbus actually has a Usonian neighborhood that was built by one of Wright’s associates in the late 1950s. We decided that we had too much crap to fit into a Usonian home. Plus it was a lot of money, even when the market was at rock bottom.
Overall it was a great experience. If you’re ever in the Cleveland area and want to stay somewhere out of the ordinary give it a look.