Family - East High Street

When Frank Lloyd Wright's Westcott House joined its East High Street neighbors in 1908, it did so with an uncommon flourish. Perhaps the most prestigious address in Springfield, Ohio, at the time, East High Street showcased the privilege and wealth of several of the town's leading citizens—all ensconced in traditionally styled houses. The addition of the avant garde Westcott House, the product of a private commission, underscored the stature of the area and the social and economic panache that it represented.

Soon after the Civil War, local leaders sought this location for their homes. According to Dr. Elwin C. Robison, structural engineer preservationist who worked on the Westcott House restoration, and Kevin Rose, historian with the local Turner Foundation that contributed significantly to the Westcott House project, "In the 1830s, Springfield extended the original High Street a block east to merge with the Chillicothe Road, thus creating the section that would later be renamed East High Street. . . . With a breathtaking view of the Buck Creek valley to the north, Mill Run to the south, and within easy walking distance of the city proper, it was an optimal piece of property for development" ("East High Street: An Open Museum of Architecture and Enterprise." www.hmturnerfoundation.org.)

And so East High Street became the site of what today is "an open museum of architecture and enterprise to all who travel the street," say Robison and Rose. Nearest the downtown area are Italianate homes of the 1870s and 1880s. They are characterized by low-pitched hipped roofs, arched windows, and brackets supporting the overhanging cornices. Then come the multiple gables, turrets, wrap-around porches, and decorative siding of the Queen Anne style residences of the 1880s and 1890s.

Perhaps the most elegant of the houses on East High Street is the Richardsonian Romanesque home built in 1896 for two-time Ohio Governor Asa Bushnell and his wife, Ellen. Its heavy, multi-colored stonework, arched porches, and decorative gables recall a medieval cloister, say Robison and Rose. The Bushnell House is currently a funeral home.

A few blocks east is the Westcott House, at number 1340, built for auto manufacturer Burton Westcott, his wife, Orpha, and their children, John and Jeanne. Its Prairie Style features make it stand out in contrast to its neighbors that exhibit European influence. Instead, the Westcott House illustrates Wright's indebtedness to the American flatlands and also to Japan, which he had visited near the time he designed he Westcott House. The horizontal emphasis of its roofs and windows, for example, point to the Wisconsin of Wright's youth and to the Oriental simplicity discovered on his 1905 journey.

Unwilling simply to apply European models to his own work, Wright sought the new, the robust, the natural, and the democratic in creating for America an architectural style both indigenous and unique. His innovative use of space and materials made him a logical choice for the forward-looking Burton and Orpha Westcott when they sought an architect for their home.

Although the style of the Westcotts' house differed from that of their neighbors, the Westcotts themselves "fit" into the neighborhood populated by "successful" residents. In fact, most other officers of the American Seeding Machine Company, which Burton Westcott served as treasurer when he and his family came to Springfield in 1903, lived in this area. They included Edward Buchwalter, company president, Joseph Carr, vice president, and Frank C. Johnson, another officer. They enjoyed the comparative tranquility of the area: its lots were spacious, and its cemetery resembled a park. With their homes these Springfielders exhibited their status as well as their taste, undoubtedly providing the less fortunate of the city with a street perfect for a Sunday afternoon drive.