The Bernard and Fern Schwartz House, also known as Still Bend, is a Usonian-style house at 3425 Adams Street, next to the East Twin River, in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the house was completed in 1940 for the businessman Bernard Schwartz and his wife Fern. The Schwartz House is one of two based on a 1938 "dream house" design published in Life magazine, the other being the Gordon House in Oregon. Over the years, the Schwartz House has received extensive architectural commentary and has been depicted in numerous exhibits, TV shows, and books. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Life magazine invited Wright to design a modern-style house for the Blackbourn family of Minneapolis, who selected an alternate design. After Schwartz saw Wright's design in the September26, 1938, issue of Life magazine, he asked Wright to build the design for him. Construction had commenced by October 1939, and the Schwartz family moved to their residence in June 1940, staying there for three decades. Paul Anderson bought the residence in 1970, and his wife Edie continued to own it until 2003, making various repairs. Jason Nordhougen and Terry Records bought the Schwartz House in 2003, and their friends Michael Ditmer and Lisa Proechel helped renovate it into a short-term homestay, which opened in mid-2004. Ditmer and his brother Gary acquired the house in 2006 and have rented it out on Airbnb since 2010.
The Schwartz House consists of a main section oriented northwest–southeast and a wing extending northeast. The exterior is made of red brick and tidewater cypress, interspersed with large glass windows and perforated decorative boards; there are also clerestory windows, overhanging flat roofs, and terraces. Adjoining the house are a sunken courtyard to the north and a patio to the south. The interior covers , with a radiant heating system, as well as tidewater cypress and brick decoration. The master bedroom, living room, dining room, and kitchen are on the first floor, while the other bedrooms are on the second floor; there is no attic or basement. Wright also designed built-in furniture and custom furnishings.
Site The Schwartz House is located at 3425 Adams Street in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, United States, approximately north of Milwaukee. It occupies the southeast corner of Adams and 36th streets, overlooking a bend on the East Twin River. The Schwartz House's nickname, Still Bend, comes from the name of the nearby subdivision and its position near the river. Next to the house, the river widens and flows through a marshy area. The Still Bend subdivision was platted out during the 1920s and became part of Two Rivers' city limits in 1955.
The Schwartz House occupies a flat land lot and is surrounded by other single-family residences, which are designed in the Minimal Traditional or Ranch styles. Unlike these other buildings, which are set back parallel to the street, the Schwartz House runs at an angle to Adams Street. A circular driveway outside the Schwartz House surrounds a landscaped lawn; this driveway is bordered with red bark. In addition, there is a sunken courtyard on the north side of the house and a concrete terrace on the south side.
History The house was built for Bernard Schwartz, a businessman from Two Rivers who manufactured dairy filters. Schwartz's family had emigrated from Russia in the 1890s, settling in Two Rivers in 1910. After Bernard married Fern Korn in 1936, the couple settled in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and their only child Stephen was born in 1937. Simultaneously, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright had received significant press coverage after having completed Fallingwater, another house in Pennsylvania. Wright mostly designed houses for wealthy clients until the 1930s, when he began to design lower-cost Usonian houses for middle-class families. In general, his Usonian houses tended to have open plans, geometric floor grids, in-floor heating, and a carport, without a garage or basement.
Development
Life plans In mid-1938, Life magazine invited eight architects (including Wright) to draw up "dream houses" for four families, each in a different income bracket. Each architect drew up either a modern design or a traditional design for each family, for a total of eight plans. Wright was asked to create a modern-style design for a middle-income family, the Blackbourn family of Minneapolis, who owned a site on a hill. Wright described his design as "a little private club" with an open plan first floor, bedrooms on the second story, an enclosed patio, a flat roof, and an outdoor pool or sunken garden. The plan was based on his earlier design for the Storer House in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Royal Barry Wills created a traditional-style design for the Blackbourns, which varied in height from one to three stories.
Wills's plans took into account the terrain and Minneapolis's snowy climate. Wills placed the living spaces in the rear to provide space for large windows at the front, overlooking a nearby lake; the steeply sloped roof allowed snow to slide off. By contrast, Wright's design entirely disregarded the climate and terrain, and one author wrote that the flat roof, outdoor patio, and glass walls were more suited for a flat site in Arizona. The Blackbourns ultimately selected Wills's design, despite reportedly expressing admiration for Wright's design. The eight dream house plans were published in Life magazine on September 26, 1938, and rapidly gained large amounts of attention. Several days after the article was published, the lawyer Eugene M. Lawton reached out to Wright, saying that the Schwartz family was interested in using his design.
Schwartz commission
The Schwartzes first went to the architect's Taliesin studio in early October 1938, where Bernard asked Wright to construct his Life design for them. The family initially wanted to construct the house at 856 Hawthorne Terrace in Two Rivers, but that site did not have enough space. The Schwartzes' next meeting with Wright took place that December. Following this meeting, Wright's secretary Eugene Masselink informed the family that the preliminary sketches had been completed and that the site needed to be enlarged by . Wright's apprentice Edgar Tafel attempted to acquire land from neighboring property owners, but Lawton had already agreed to buy the Hawthorne Terrace site for $2,600 and refused to spend more on land. As a result, the Schwartzes instead decided to build the house on the Twin River's western shore, slightly north of Two Rivers.
In April 1939, Bernard Schwartz again visited Taliesin to share drawings of the site, directing Wright to create detailed construction drawings and requesting a list of materials. A local builder, Bernard Pawlitzke, was hired as the general contractor. In addition, Egger's Veneer and Plywood Company was hired as the interior furnisher, Suettinger Sheet Metal was hired to build the roof, and Lahey and Watson were responsible for plumbing and wiring. Construction had commenced by October 1939, after the site had been leveled, and Tafel was appointed to supervise the house's construction. The Schwartz House's cost was initially estimated at $12,000 (). The brickwork was delivered that November. Documents indicate that the millwork was delivered in January 1940 and that the ceilings and roof were being built by the next month.
As work was underway, Tafel claimed that one of the ceiling beams was inadequately supported, though Wright asserted that the roof was structurally sound. Without Wright's knowledge, Tafel directed contractors to add a steel support beam and strengthen the cantilevered carport, and he replaced the plywood in the master bedroom with 2-by-4 wood planks. Schwartz was displeased with the extra steel cost, so Tafel explained them away as "minor job conditions"; according to some accounts, Wright fired Tafel when he learned about the beam, only to rehire him. Fern Schwartz and Wright also reportedly disagreed over whether to add a closet to the second-story bathroom. As a result, the closet door was ultimately placed next to the toilet, making the door impossible to fully open. The house was completed in June 1940; sources disagree on whether it ultimately cost $18,000 () or $20,000 (). According to the Two Rivers Reporter, it was the 298th structure designed by Wright to be completed.
Use as private residence
When the Schwartz House was finished, Wright was reportedly proud of it. An article in the Two Rivers Reporter described Wright as saying that the house had "the best workmanship" of any Usonian house that he had recently designed. Wright claimed it had an "almost ageless quality" and rarely needed to be repaired, nor did he think there was a significant risk of fire. Though local residents criticized its design, the Schwartzes did not care for their opinions. Nonetheless, the Schwartz family wrote to Wright several months after moving in, asking him to modify several aspects of their residence. In particular, they thought the fireplaces were too smoky, and they wanted more heat, ceiling lights, and furniture. Wright addressed most of these issues except for the fireplaces, which could not be fixed until the chimney was expanded. He appointed his longtime mason Philip Volk to increase the height of the chimney; a mason named "Hans" ultimately carried out the chimney extension.
During the Schwartzes' ownership, the house hosted events such as Halloween parties and school field trips, and the family invited guests such as Wright and his wife Olgivanna (who first visited in 1941). Wright visited the Schwartz House again in September 1942 to draw sketches for several outbuildings, additional furniture, and modifications to the original building. The new outbuildings would have included a boathouse and pergola. Although Wright sent over the drawings to the Schwartzes that November, the structures were not built because of World War II and because Fern was concerned about such a large expenditure. The site became part of Two Rivers in 1955, and the Schwartz family repaired the roof in the late 1960s.
In 1970, the Schwartz family sold their house to Edith and Paul Anderson. Paul, the manager of a local real-estate firm, had bought the building because they liked the riverfront site and because the $30,000 sale price was affordable. The Andersons lived there with their five children. After Paul's death in 1977, Edie took over her husband's business. Edie Anderson (also known by her maiden name, Edie Schroeder) recalled that strangers periodically contacted her because they wanted to see the Schwartz House. According to Edie, her children often invited Wright fans inside when they were home. Edie replaced several of the windows and doors over the years, and she also fixed the roof.
2000s renovation
Jason Nordhougen and Terry Records of Minnesota bought the Schwartz House in September 2003, paying $315,000. Two friends, Michael Ditmer and his partner Lisa Proechel, helped renovate it. Ditmer had been a fan of Wright's work ever since he first visited Taliesin as a teenager, but he could not afford to buy a Wright-designed house, so he partnered with Nordhougen and Records instead. Ditmer later told the Madison Capital Times that he wanted to rent out the Schwartz House as a homestay, and he also wanted to buy several other Wright-designed houses for the same purpose. Bamco Architects was hired to help renovate the structure, Schaus Roofing and Mechanical Contracting was charged with replacing the roof, and Hoffman Bros. was responsible for other renovations. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation gave the restoration team the original plans for the building.