|
|
 |
|
| Feature |
From Hearth To Heritage
Patricia Eakins
10/01/2005
|
Preservation specialists say this is
common. According to Arnold Berke, executive editor of Preservation, published
by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the trust welcomes home
donations, but they require substantial endowments attached to them for
maintenance. These endowments, Berke points out, tend to be more than most
people think.
Despite Goedecke’s deft architectural intervention, the Gruber
house does not express an architect’s vision of a historically significant
aesthetic. It does not qualify for the National Register as the down-at-the
heels but architecturally important Spring House does. The Gruber legacy is
founded in what the inhabitants have given to the community. So if a university
were to ultimately accept the property, there would be nothing to prevent the
conversion of the houses to office space or razing them to build something else,
such as a retreat. If an inadequate maintenance endowment accompanies a gift of
this nature, such an outcome is not unlikely.
Even in cases in which an endowment is adequate, the move from private to
public raises issues. Consider the evolution of Duke Farms in Hillsborough,
N.J., a home of Doris Duke, who died in 1993. The estate features a foundation
for a grand house that was never built. While alive, Duke would not permit trees
or shrubbery growing in the abandoned basement to be cut, and family retainers
found it painful to contemplate any pruning.
According to Duke Farms
executive director Tim Taylor, his staff has carefully removed about half of the
trees and shrubs growing inside the foundation, trimming the minimum necessary
to give tourists an unimpeded view. “This pruning was the crossover moment,”
Taylor says, “when we truly moved from a private estate to a public venue.” In
doing so, he cautiously, though necessarily, gave the spirit of Duke’s will
priority over her wishes during her lifetime.
The Frank Lloyd Wright house of
the Lewis family has this in common with the grand house at Duke Farms: neither
is fully complete. An exterior wall girdling a circular terrace is unfinished at
Spring House; Clifton wants to complete it as part of a conversion plan. She
talks about constructing another house on her land, a simple bamboo and gunite
structure that architect Leonardo Ricci has already designed; it would house 10
people in a communal, intergenerational housing scheme. Potential buyers have
materialized who would allow Lewis to remain in the Wright house until her
death, but none would support this project, designed to allow her to remain in
the new house. So far, Van says, “The outside world has not cooperated
with my mother’s dreams. That hasn’t slowed her down, though. I’m proud of
her.” Patricia Eakins is a novelist and author of Writing for Interior Design. Additional Information
 Southern Hospitality
From Eyesore to icon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
