Here are 23 softball players to watch in Manitowoc and Sheboygan, vote for the best

In Two Rivers, Still Bend home offers live-in glimpse of Frank Lloyd Wright's genius

Patti Zarling
Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter

TWO RIVERS - Pulling up to Still Bend — formerly known as the Schwartz House — on a rainy November night, the first thing I notice is that this super-cool Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home, with its low, flat roof and carefully lit carport, sits smack in the middle of an ordinary, small-town Wisconsin neighborhood.

I didn’t expect this work of art to be closely surrounded by ranch and two-story homes built in the 1970s and 1980s, but here it is.

As I grab an overnight bag from the trunk of my Toyota, I think about the legions of Frank Lloyd Wright fans and their fascination with his work. Wright, a native of Richland Center, Wisconsin, has been called the greatest architect of all time, known for works ranging from Fallingwater in Pennsylvania to his home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. 

This Two Rivers home was completed in 1940 and it's one of only 11 Frank Lloyd Wright homes available for overnight stays within the U.S. The resurgence of "green" and minimalist living, which Wright famously embraced, made me eager to see how the master's designs hold up to today's lifestyle.

Still Bend is a 'living home,' not a museum

After parking in the curved driveway, I find the inauspicious front door located behind a short wall, not easily visible from the street. This is the way Wright liked it, I’m told. He wanted folks to feel like they were entering a special club through an almost secret passageway.

I step into the small ingress of the softly lit home, immediately taking in the cypress-board walls, built-in desk and mid-century furnishings.

RELATED:Manitowoc Evergleam aluminum Christmas trees: 'It’s amazing how the whole thing took off'

I'm stunned as I enter the wide-open common space. Michael Ditmer, one of Still Bend’s owners, says Wright often designed homes with tight entryways to add to the wow factor one feels once they reach the huge main room.

What I see on this quiet night is a grand piano staged elegantly near a bank of large windows. In the next day’s light, I see through these windows to a patio and a yard that leads to a “still bend” in one of the area’s twin rivers. From this view, it looks as though the house is located in a rural area, far from the buzz of daily life.

Still Bend, also known as Frank Lloyd Wright's Bernard Schwartz House, is located in Two Rivers.

Within the great room of the home, I take in tasteful chairs, sofas and lamps akin to furnishings the three previous owners of Still Bend might have purchased over the years. None of the furnishings is original to the home. In fact, the new owners bought Still Bend in a state of disrepair and worked for a year to bring the house back to its original glory. What I see now could be a "Mad Men" set. 

The Schwartz home is considered a “living FLW home,” meaning visitors can use its furnishings. Ditmer is proud guests can spend time soaking in the aura and feeling of the home, rather than being led through a tour line that "ends in the gift shop," he says.

I am not an architecture expert, but I recognize Wright's signatures: narrow windows near the ceiling adding subtle light, framed-in cutouts with a clearly Southwestern flair.

The kitchen, tucked in a corner of the home, has a two-story sky light and vertical windows. The countertops are bright orange. Though it's a tone I associate more with the 1970s than 1940, it was indeed the color Wright chose. Fortunately, the appliances are modern, although there’s no microwave and I have to make coffee in a percolator.

Experiencing the sound of silence during my overnight stay

A bedroom in the Still Bend house on Nov. 29, 2018, in Two Rivers, Wis.

That first night, I sleep in the sunken master bedroom, again filled with 1950s and 1960s furnishings. Adjacent to the bedroom is the master bathroom, much taller than it is wide. The wall next to the tub is the same red brick that makes up the outer walls of the house. The ceiling stretches at least 20 feet, creating the illusion, as Wright hoped, that one is doing their business in the great outdoors.

Bedrooms are small, as Wright believed they were meant for sleeping, not living. Not to mention, people decades ago didn't have all the stuff we do today.

To be honest, the quietness of the home was a bit freaky when I was there alone ... a stark reminder that the drone of a TV, the whir of a refrigerator and the ping of my smartphone have become part of my daily experience.

I can see how this home would be perfect for dinner or cocktail parties. The great room seems made for well-dressed men and women gathering in the intimate spaces that Wright carved out of the larger design. A reporter in yoga pants and a sweatshirt, knitting, might not be what he had in mind.

The lounge bench is not meant for today's couch potato, I learn. Sitting there for a long period of time will leave you stiff. But working on my computer in the mod dining room, with views of the river on one side and the handsome great room on the other, was a real treat.

Although I don’t know how many martinis the home's original owners, Bernard Schwartz and his wife, Fern, poured back in the day, I do know they were well off and maybe a bit quirky.

“Bernard and Fern were very avant garde for their time,” Ditmer tells me. “[Bernard] walked around Two Rivers with a cape over his shoulders. Fern had a very aristocratic air about her. They jumped at the chance for this house.”

Wisconsin-native Frank Lloyd Wright is considered by some, including himself, to be the greatest architect in history.

Close observation reveals Wright's attention to detail

Still Bend is an example of Wright's Usonian style, a lower-cost design type that grew out of his revolutionary “prairie style” during the Great Depression. It was completed when Wright was in his early 70s. Though he was experiencing a dip in his career at the time, there is no indication he was off his game when he designed this home.

Wright was a naturalist, green before his time. He used natural products to build homes, and he incorporated idyllic views and natural themes throughout his houses. At Still Bend, for example, the staircase begins with a large step, with the next few becoming progressively smaller to mimic the mouth of a river or stream.

Ditmer says the famous architect was so taken with the craftsmanship of local masons and wood workers, that he immediately drew up plans for an elaborate pergola, a two-story boathouse, as well as a horse paddock, stables and a chicken house with a view of the river. Fern, concerned with costs, put the kibosh on those additions.

But the Schwartzes did spring for radiant floor heating, making Still Bend the fourth home in the U.S. with this wonderful convenience. 

RELATED:A bee sting killed their son. Now this Wisconsin couple is fighting for EpiPen expansion.

RELATED:Manitowoc Wisconsin Maritime Museum: 6 fun things to do in January

During a tour of the home, Ditmer pointed out a door in an upstairs bathroom that oddly hits the toilet to make for an awkward entrance. It turns out there's an interesting story behind it.

Fern insisted that a linen closet be added inside the bathroom, while Wright didn't think it was necessary. Though Fern won the argument, she thought Wright might have gotten his revenge. She believed Wright placed the door in that awkward spot to get back at her for demanding the extra storage.

The longer I studied the home, both upstairs and down, the more I noticed Wright's incredible attention to detail, notwithstanding the aforementioned door. I appreciated the 4-foot wall lamp Wright designed specifically for this home, providing readers with the perfect light to dive into a good book. Or the way he placed "night lights" at knee level along the upstairs hallway, so night owls can find their way without the glare of overhead lamps.

I may not be a Frank Lloyd Wright aficionado, but I'm certainly becoming a fan.

Wisconsin architect Frank Lloyd Wright built Taliesin, which means “shining brow” in Welsh, just below the brow of a hill in the rolling countryside outside Spring Green. Tours are offered May through October and often sell out in advance.

Still Bend is a dream come true for its owner

Unlike me, Ditmer is no novice. His parents took him on a tour of Taliesin, Wright's home, studio and 800-acre agricultural estate, when he was 15. The architect built the property on his favorite boyhood hill in the Wisconsin River valley, south of Madison and near Spring Green.

Something about the architecture hooked Ditmer, he said. At 24, he remembers seeing Wright's Imperial Hotel in Japan.

"Anyone who starts to get interested in Wright dreams about what it would be like to live in one of his homes," Ditmer says. "Now, I get to help other people live those dreams.”

Still Bend has gone through extensive renovations since Ditmer and his partners bought the property in 2003. They have big plans for the future: replacing the glass windows to the river-facing patio with French doors that match what would have been on the original home, and redoing the sunken patio on the other side of the great room.

Money brought in through overnight guests, tours and event rentals is put back into the upkeep and restoration of Still Bend, Ditmer says. A guestbook on the entryway desk shows signatures from throughout the country with entries such as “Thanks for making a dream come true” and “This was one of the most beautiful experiences of our life.”

Still Bend provides fans who can’t afford to buy a Wright home of their own with the opportunity to live in one, even if just for a few days, Ditmer says.

“The first thing I tell people when they stay is to completely relax, to make themselves at home, and to disconnect from their outside roles,” he says. “The brilliance of Frank Lloyd Wright is (that he created) a certain spiritual, metaphysical experience. People leave inspired to take lessons into their own world.”

The four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom home accommodates up to six people. Overnight stays at Still Bend cost $425 per night during the week and $500 per night on Fridays and Saturdays during peak season, April 21 to Oct. 31. During the winter season, they cost $375 per night during the week and $425 per night on Fridays and Saturdays. There's a two-night minimum, and a glance at the online calendar indicates 2019 weekends are already filling up. Visit www.theschwartzhouse.com for details.