Pew House by Wright

Pew House by Wright © 2009 Bo Macksion

The Pew House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1938-40, is seldom available for public tours, so it was with great enthusiasm that I explored this home, inside and outside, during the Wright and Like Tour held in June, 2009. For those of you Wright fans who are in the Midwest, the next Wright and Like tour will be held in Racine/Kenosha, Wisconsin on June 4-6, 2010. There are great homes on the tour and an opportunity to see the Johnson Wax Company’s campus, one of Wright’s more iconic projects. For more information, contact the Wright and Like Tours.

Hidden from View © 2009 Bo Mackison

Not much of a view of the Pew House from the dock or from Lake Mendota. The view from a boat on the lake would give no clue that a Wright home was tucked into this hillside.

The home is a two-story Usonian design, unusual but delightfully compact and full of Wright’s built-ins. In one of the small bedrooms, tiny in size, the room worked well because everything was built into the room – bed, desk, storage.

I read a delightful story about an interview with Ruth Pew who voiced unhappiness with the home for the first two years she lived there. It seems she felt that Mr. Wright did not take her wants and needs into consideration when he designed the home, and she was nearly ready to put the home on the market. Instead, she decided she would “give the house a year without struggling with it.” And in that year, she discovered that the home had been built not for the woman she was, but for “the woman I could become.” Talk about self-discovery!

Tagged as: architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, interview with Ruth Pew, John and Ruth Pew Home, Lake Mendota, Madison Landmark, Madison Wisconsin, Usonian home, Wright and Like Tour 2009, Wright and Like Tour 2010