Frank Lloyd Wright built three homes in my hometown of Canton, Ohio. They are known as the Nathan Rubins House (1951), the John J Dobkins House (1953), and the Ellis Feiman House (1954).
The Dobkins house is a few yards from my sister’s house. Anthony McCue writes in his blog that the owners told him that Wright specified 14 pin oaks to be planted in perfect relation to the structure. Having grown up worshiping this house, the trees have always been an integral part of my admiration.
I have passed by the Rubins House thousands of times in my life as it is on the way to the grocery store from my childhood home that my mother still owns. I can, in all honesty, say that it too captured my attention on most drivebys.
A friend of a friend once owed the Feiman house. They sold it to build their own design. I was lucky enough to be invited to their new home once. They had incorporated many Wright features such as custom tile and heavy use of wood trim.
For better pictures that I could ever take click here.
2 Comments
I really like your website and appreciate that you write so frequently, so I hope I am not being mean, commenting on an archived page! I grew up near Canton and remember driving by the FLW homes with my dad. I am envious that you got to walk by them.
Now, I work in a Frank Lloyd Wright home, Fallingwater, and I am planning on taking some of the guide staff to see Ohio houses. Do you have any other photos and/or insights I could share with them? Do you think growing growing by this Wright 3 influence you to become a designer? I am including this posting as part of their trip preparation! And staggered by staggering… So, maybe you’ve made your mark, in your own way.
Keep up the great blog!
Thank you so very much for your wonderful comment! I do believe they influenced me. They still do. I am so proud to have them in my hometown–is that weird?
I believe my sometimes rigid insistance on linear shapes comes from idolizing these three homes! That and the need to work with the setting. I have such a hard time ignoring the location of a home, even if I must.
I will visit Fallingwater in the very near future, I promise. For now, I will go to the Pope-Leighey house, quite close to where I live now in the coming days—I feel a blog entry coming on!!