Blueprints of the Arthur C. Mathews Residence

[Makoto]

I found 2 types of blueprints for the Arthur C. Mathews residence.

One is on an auction site. There are 5 sheets including the " Plot Plan". The Plot Plan sheet has the signature in the square in the bottom of the sheet.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/159 ... blueprints

The other one is on ebay. The owner sold the blueprint "Plot Plan". The drawing is almost same but there is the unit explanation at the right side.
The sheet does not have the signature at the square in the bottom of the sheet.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Frank-Lloyd-Wri ... 7675.l2557

Could you let me know why there are 2 types of blueprints for one residence? Please let me know what is the difference between the prints and the meaning of the signature (or any other differences).

Thank you!

[Paul Ringstrom]

Could you let me know why there are 2 types of blueprints for one residence?
Please let me know what is the difference between the prints and the meaning of the signature (or any other differences).
Thank you!

They could be two versions of the house.
The second of which has incorporated
changes that the client requested.

How about using TinyURL to shorten that
horrendously long website address?

[Roderick Grant]

This is a very handsome house. Does anyone know if it is still in the hands of the original client?

[jim]

A quick public records search indicates one family other than the Matthews living in the house in the 1960s; a sale in 1969 for $75,000; and another family living in the house now. Trulia, not always very reliable, estimates the market value at $3.2m.

[Roderick Grant]

Atherton is one of the spendiest markets in the country. Though $3.2M sounds a bit high for what is a modest-sized house on a modest-sized lot.

It's also hard to get to. The traffic on Bay Road is fast and furious. I recommend getting onto Bay at Florence, so you can hang a right at Ringwood. I tried from the other direction, and turning left was slow and dangerous.

[DavidC]

This auction is for 8 blueprints, yet the auction site is only showing 5 of them. I wonder why that might be???


David

[SDR]

The images shown on the first auction site linked above.

Link to new Mathews thread http://savewright.org/wright_chat/viewtopic.php?t=7473

SDR

[Kthmathews]

A quick public records search indicates one family other than the Matthews living in the house in the 1960s; a sale in 1969 for $75,000; and another family living in the house now. Trulia, not always very reliable, estimates the market value at $3.2m.

Arthur c Mathews is still alive and living in Oregon. My husband, Alan, is his eldest son and lived in the house. The family sold when a third son was born and one member on the planning council didn’t like the style of the house and refused to allow an additional bedroom.
By the way, Art always insisted it should be the Peake House as it was Al Peake ( his wife’s father) who knew FLW and loaned the funds to have the house built. Art and his wife, Judy, met Mr Wright during the planning stage.
Regards
Kathleen Mathews

[DavidC]

Hello, Kathleen.

Thank you for posting and for letting us know about your father-in-law. He, along with Roland Reisley, may be the last two of the original clients left alive.

Matthews is a wonderful house. I'm sure you've heard some interesting stories over the years about it, as well. Have you had the chance to visit/tour the home? Also, do you know how it was that Al Peake (Art's father-in-law) knew Wright?


David

[SDR]

Stanford professor of architectural history Paul V Turner answers that interesting question in his Frank Lloyd Wright and San Francisco (Yale University Press, 2016). The research preceding the writing of his book involved finding the correspondence between Wright (assisted by Gene Masselink) and the clients of his Bay Area work. Turner says this about the inception of the Mathews residence in Atherton:

It was the young Arthur Mathews and his wife Judith, 28 and 25 at the time, who were drawn to Wright after discovering his work, and after learning of his more modest house designs from a friend who worked at Sunset magazine, they decided to approach Wright. They wrote to him that they had seen the Hanna and Bazett houses---the nearest of his Usonian homes to their Atherton property---and that they had a budget for a new home of about twenty thousand dollars. It was after that that Judy's father, Alonzo Peake, then president of Standard Oil Company of Indiana, offered to fund the construction of the house, with the clients to repay him later.

It is a pleasure to hear from Kathleen Mathews. We assume that the above scenario is reflected by the facts as they are recalled by the present generation. It is of great interest to learn that the original owners contemplated adding to the house, before deciding to move on. Perhaps Kathleen or her husband will have further reminiscences to offer our grateful readers ?

SDR

[Roderick Grant]

It would also be interesting to learn how far the plan for the proposed added bedroom went before the "kibosh." Were plans drawn? Or did it only get as far as a hope?