Orus Orville Eash, FAIA

[Paul Ringstrom]

I recently found out that Orus Eash was the architect who designed the interesting round usonian-esqe home south of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed home in Ft. Wayne, IN.

aerial view:


Article on exhibit:
http://www.goshen.edu/news/pressarchive ... sh338.html

Blog:
http://mccrearyhomes.wordpress.com/2008 ... ool-links/

Obituary:
http://archfw.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/ ... ille-eash/

[pharding]

After receiving my bachelors degree I lived and worked in Fort Wayne for 3 years. Orus was certainly the finest architect in his day in Fort Wayne. He did many fine buildings in the Fort Wayne area. He wasn't afraid to take risks and try out new ideas. Fort Wayne has under-achieved in the recent past in the area of architectural excellence, although it does have fine buildings from the 50's and 60's by Eero Saarinen and Louis Kahn.

[Palli Davis Holubar]

Paul- thanks. Always wondered. What do you know about the John Haynes family and the contemporaneous cultural scene in the town?

[Paul Ringstrom]

Historical background: When John Haynes' family outgrew their original home they asked FLW to design another. They were unable to agree on the architect's fee and Orus Eash was subsequently hired to design a house on the adjoining property.

[pharding]

Paul- thanks. Always wondered. What do you know about the John Haynes family and the contemporaneous cultural scene in the town?

All that I know about the John Haynes family is what I read on the Haynes House web site. John was a salesman for a local insurance company, Lincoln Life. Lincoln Life was a major supporter of local cultural institutions. Fort Wayne was home to a number of national and regional corporate headquarters. Unfortunately those companies have been bought out by larger corporations or gutted by Wall Street Investment banks or relocated. Manufacturing in Fort Wayne has fallen on hard times. Mid-size cities in the Midwest, like Fort Wayne have really struggled economically. Downtown Fort Wayne suffers from a shredded urban fabric with an abundance of parking on grade between scattered buildings. Architecturally there have been a lot of missed opportunities.

[DRN]

keywords: eash, Haynes, circular house, Fort Wayne

[SDR]

A nice chance to have a fresh go at this obscure worthy. We know---or eventually learn---the correct pronunciation of "Charles and Ray Eames." Anyone know how Mr Eash sounded his last name ?

http://www.michiganmodern.org/designers/orus-o-eash

https://obituaries.goshennews.com/obitu ... -716838611

https://dancerconcrete.com/feature/circle-house/

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandho ... 227#photo1

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandho ... 50#photo20 The last five photos gratify one's yen for exterior shots.

S

[Roderick Grant]

(To begin with, I tried to log in, but got the message that I had exceeded my limit, and had to go through a hoop to get back on. I had logged in twice! What's going on here?)

SDR, your last entry was of a different house, not the wonderful Orus Eash design.

[SDR]

The rectangular house is another Orus Eash design. I'm hoping to find further work by the architect but am having no luck . . .

S

[JimM]

(To begin with, I tried to log in, but got the message that I had exceeded my limit, and had to go through a hoop to get back on. I had logged in twice! What's going on here?

Has happened a few times for me, too...

[DRN]

Eash also designed Immanuel Baptist, now Joshua’s Temple Christian Church in Fort Wayne:
https://joshuastemple.org/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/archfw.wor ... -eash/amp/

https://www.amazon.com/Andersen-Windowa ... B0186USRIM

Obituary of an architect who worked with Eash from 1952-1960:
https://preservetucson.org/stories/will ... 1924-2009/

[Hardman]

Thanks for all the info on Orus Eash. I live in one of his homes in Fort Wayne and love the design. I was always curious about the architect. The house came with a box full of blueprints that I enjoy looking at from time to time. It is to fun to look at the iterations that they went through when finalizing the design. His first proposal had a lot of his tendency toward curves. But in the end our home is not as edgy as his circle, glass house, or bunker "movie theater" house, but is a nice mixture of the latter two. Our living room has a 20ft run of floor to ceiling windows that gives a great view of the wooded area behind the house and has a more traditional ranch front. According to the blueprints the house was originally built for Leon Habegger a local businessman who started LH Industries.