Undated photo of the Boynton House.
Note that the front porch, designed by Wright to be open-air, has been enclosed.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Arts, Music and Recreation Division.
The Boynton House
Undated photo of the Boynton House.
Note that the front porch, designed by
Wright to be open-air, has been enclosed.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Arts, Music and Recreation
Division.
According to the Rochester City Directory, Edward Everett Boynton and his 21-year-old daughter Beulah lived at 44 Vick Park B in 1907. Sometime during that year Boynton, a successful lantern salesman, took the advice of his colleague Warren McArthur and hired architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house and grounds where Boynton and his daughter Beulah would live. (Interestingly, young Beulah originally wanted Claude Bragdon to design the house!)
From the 1907 Rochester City Directory
Wright helped pick the site and was paid a total sum of about $55,000 to construct the Prairie-style house at 16 East Boulevard, which has four bedrooms and three baths. Built in 1908, the design of the house was achieved in collaboration with Beulah Boynton--unusual for Wright, who didn't always get along well with his clients. Wright also designed the furniture with Beulah's input. With its low, flat roofs, overhanging eaves, long horizontal rows of windows, and sharp lines punctuated by flights of colored glass, the Boynton house looked completely different from any other dwelling in Rochester. Mr. Boynton and his daughter lived in the house until 1918, when they moved to New York City.
In 1954, Times-Union reporter William M. Ringle wrote to both Wright and Beulah Boynton for more information about the house for an article he was working on.
Ringle's letter to Beulah, in which he enclosed a set of questions about the
Boynton House.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Local History Division.
Wright's response to Ringle.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library
Local History Division.
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Beulah's response to Ringle, in which she promises to answer the questions
he sent to her. |
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Ringle's questions to Beulah.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Local History Division.
Beulah's responses to Ringle's questions about the Boynton House.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Local History Division.
In January 1955, Ringle went to New York City to visit Beulah and to interview her about her recollections of the Boynton House--its design, construction, and what it was like to live in a piece of "living art."
Ringle's notes from his interview with Beulah.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Local History Division.
The Boynton House, which is the easternmost Prairie house that Wright built, had various owners after the Boyntons who altered elements of the house over the years. The land on which the original gardens and tennis court sat was sold off and a home built on it. The original open-air porch was enclosed. And gutters and downspouts were added to replace Wright's interior roof drainage system. Other changes were even more unwelcome--water damage and the invasion of termites that would do serious damage to the wood, compromising the very structure of the house. In 2010, a massive restoration effort was begun by the house's new owners, who worked closely with the Landmark Society of Western New York and the city's Building and Zoning Department and Preservation Board. Parts of the house were completely taken apart, restored, and put back together again. All of the art glass in the house was removed, refurbished, and replaced. In addition, a lily pond that had been removed was rebuilt. Additions include a new garage and pergola, which have been constructed using a design inspired by Wright's work. Updates inside the house include new electrical, plumbing, and air systems. It is hoped that with the recent restoration, the Boynton House will last another 100 years.
The Boynton
House in 2012. The open-air porch has been restored.
From the collection of the Rochester Public Library Local History Division.
Bibliography
For more on Frank Lloyd Wright and the Boynton House, check out these books from the Arts, Music and Recreation Division of the Rochester Public Library:
Heinz, Thomas A.,
Frank Lloyd Wright Portfolio: East (Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith,
1993).
Manson, Grant Carpenter, Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910 (New York: Reinhold,
1958).
Storrer, William Allin, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002).
Weintraub, Alan, Frank Lloyd Wright: American Master (New York: Rizzoli: Distributed to the U.S. trade by Random House, c2009).
A good article on Wright and the Boynton House story can be found in Western New York Heritage, Volume 15, Number 2 (Summer 2012), "Frank Lloyd Wright in Rochester," by Matthew Biddle. This periodical can be found in the Local History Division.
Note: Frank Lloyd Wright's Boynton House: The Next Hundred Years, WXXI's new documentary premiering early fall 2012, highlights the restoration of Rochester's only Frank Lloyd Wright house. Click the link for more information and to see a preview: http://interactive.wxxi.org/boyntonhouse.
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