The Westcott House

During the Thanksgiving Holiday I mentioned I visited my extended family. They live in Springfield, which with every trip I take there I find is a pretty interesting city with a lot of history. So first let's begin with some history. One of the historical sites in Springfield is a Prairie style house built for the Westcott Family in 1908. It was designed in 1906 by Frank Lloyd Wright himself. If you are unaware of this fact Frank Lloyd Wright was the most important architect of his era. The Westcott house was sold from the Westcott family to another family. In the early 1940's the house was turned into a multi-unit apartment building. This changed the architecture of the original design. The house then became an undiscovered, lost Wright artifact for many years.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and the Westcott House Foundation put into place a multi million dollar restoration to restore the building to all its original glory. Not only was the house done in the recognizable Wright Prairie style but it also contained aspects of Asian architecture with a terrace, lily pond, garden, plenty of windows among other landscape elements. The pergola that connects the detached garage to the main house contains intricate wood trellis, even an intricate bird house makes an appearance. Wright wanted the birds to even have home among this home.

Upon walking up to this house I was already memorized by its beauty. I couldn't wait to get inside and see the rest of the house. My aunt and I took a guided tour through the house. Now as I said the home was restored, a lot of architecture is a replica of the original.

Now if you are ready let me take you through the house in picture style...

Below is a picture of the bird house

This is a picture of the entry way

This is looking down to the front door, which is located on the side of the house.

The next few pictures are of the main floor of the house. The floor plan is very open and you will notice all of the windows.

Children's playroom with play table.

This area was used for relaxing and homework in the evenings. The children would sit by the fire and work on their homework after school.

This is the dinning room. Look at that table, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as most of the furniture you'll see in these pictures was. The kitchen is off the dinning room. 

That far wall is the ice box. The door that is open shows where the ice would have been delivered, from the street and placed right into the ice box. All of those little doors are the ice box.

This stove is not the original it is a replica.

I would kill for this much storage space.

This is the ceiling located up the stairs in the main entry way.

For my aunt and I this would have been a reading nook. To the Westcotts it was used to display sconces or statues. What a waste of good reading space. Throw a couple of pillows and a blanket up there and I would never leave.

Inside one of the walk in closets.

I would kill for a footed tub. One of the five bathrooms in the house. Mom and Dad each had their own bath room. The kids shared a bathroom and the help had their own bathroom. They also lived on the same floor as the family, which was not normally heard of. But to the Westcotts their help was like family.

Fireplaces in the master bedrooms. Yes plural. Mom and Dad each had their own rooms, but they were connected.

An old fashioned electrical circuit box. Pretty cool.

The laundry room. On laundry day, it would have taken a whole day, this room would have been full of drying racks because the rich did not hang their dirty laundry outside to dry. That was just unheard of.

This is the door that we exited through. 

This is what we exited into. The gardens. Which I'm sure in the Spring this garden is blossoming but in Winter it is mostly dead. Yet I can imagine how beautiful it is.

The light fixtures. They are not the original. There are only two in existence still and they are behind a glass case in the gift shop.

This is the pergola I was talking about in the beginning, the one that connects the garage to the main house. The garage is now the gift shop. In the garage/gift shop there are pony stables where the children's ponies lived. Lucky little children. The pony stables are very nice. 

If you are in the Springfield area I highly recommend a visit to the Westcott house. Or to one of the many other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings around the United States. There is one located in Pennsylvania Falling Waters. 

*Picture is taken from the Falling Waters website and is not my own.

I would love to visit Falling Waters one day. I mean hello, breath taking.

xo

*Shine like Glitter*

I would live in this house.

Fireplace and a reading nook in the main bedrooms.

Plenty of open space.

Plenty of windows that bring in natural light.

But it is a little out of my price range and not for sale.

Sigh.