Wrightish home in WV??

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:12 pm

Hi! You seem like a nice bunch of folks here and I hope I'm not wasting your time.

I work with, but not for, a real estate agent in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, about 50 miles from DC.

I was absolutely stunned when she took me out to see the house linked to below. It is very secluded and several local architects in the area I talked to had no idea it was there.

The story is that it was built in the late 40's/early 50's for a mill owner named Dunn.

It's had several owners who treated it rather poorly before the current owners spent 100K+ fixing it up. It's not done yet, but they've done some nice work. (Yes, the roof's and windows did leak).

Several VERY contentious intervening real estate transactions have left a cold trail on identifying the architect.

The current owners have heard that the architect was an Alfred Bohn or Bonn and that Frank Lloyd Wright either reviewed or visited the house during construction. I checked the Taliesin resident list and couldn't find any Bohn or Bonn. There are no useful County records and no heirs that the agent could track down.

Anyway, to a relatively untrained eye this place looks very Wrightish.

Any questions, comments or suggestions on tracking down the story would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Here's the URL

http://www.ubuildtours.com/tour.php?id=5B7D

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JSL · Post by **JSL** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:19 pm

Looks about as Wrightish as the Taj Mahal does...

Collinst3 · Post by **Collinst3** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:24 pm

More like Michael Graves

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:32 pm

A leaky roof does not a Frank Lloyd Wright house make. Needless to say, this is not FLW, FLW apprentice nor FLW approved. It is in a style reminiscent of Robertson Ward, George Howe or even George Fred Keck, early Edward Durrell Stone or Morris Lapidus. If it was built as late as you say, it might have been done by a follower of any one of the above, who were doing that sort of thing in the 1930s; it seems old hat for post-WII.

Jeff Myers · Post by **Jeff Myers** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:43 pm

Let me pass this along... Tulsa has many Streamline Moderne buildings. Streamline Moderne lasted up til the early to mid 1050's. The period of this house is fitting with that time period.

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 4:52 pm

Jeff, I take issue with your dating. There was still some of that going on after the war, but not much, especially in residential architecture. By the early 50s, virtually nothing of that style was to be found ... unless Tulsa was late in getting the message. There was a strange hybrid of late moderne and early Googies in commercial work, but this particular house definitely looks out of date.

Jeff Myers · Post by **Jeff Myers** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:05 pm

Tulsa's last Streamlined Moderne Building was in 1950. Houses of course were not in Streamline at the time, which you are right. The house might have been built in he 1940s then possible early 40's.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:20 pm

Hideously ugly! Sorry.

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 9:14 am

Not what I would have expected in WV.
I agree with Mr. Grant...I immediately thought of 1930's EDS, or George Howe's '30's work near Philadelphia. The interior, especially the stairwell is reminiscent of Moderne work in Britain or Belgium...could pass for a Hercule Poirot set on PBS's Mystery! series.
The house has good moments and some awkward moments. Great place for a Deco furniture collector.

Other than the exterior paint colors being similar to those at Fallingwater, I don't see any allusions to Wright.

arcadia · Post by **arcadia** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:42 pm

Many thanks for the comments thus far. Not what I expected, but elucidating nonetheless. I think the agent is going to have to work some more on locating heirs to the original owner.

I'll check back for any more comments in a couple of days.