RACINE — One of the local houses designed by influential architect John Randal McDonald in the 1950s is now on the market for the first time in almost 20 years.
The David and Mary Aldrich House, circa 1956, 2721 Delaware Ave., is one of more than two dozen houses in Racine County designed by McDonald.
Some might describe the house as having a Frank Lloyd Wright influence, or the “Prairie Architecture” style, but McDonald called this “American Architecture” — as it is often thought of as the first architectural style unique to the U.S.
According to the realtor who listed the house on behalf of the owner, there has been a lot of regional interest in the house.
Shaun Olejniczak, of Cedarburg-based Realty Executives, described the house as having all of the original features, including the tree growing in the two-story atrium.
The house has had no updates since it was built and is being sold “as is.”
Olejniczak said the potential new homeowner would be able to renovate the home to their own tastes and “make it their very own.”
The house sits on two city lots that span approximately one-half of an acre next to Greencrest Park, about three blocks south of St. Lucy Catholic Church.
McDonald
According to the website named for him, McDonald used to say he was an Architect — with capital A.
McDonald, a Milwaukee native, worked throughout the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha area before relocating to Florida in 1963 where he expanded to designing commercial buildings.
The first house he designed was at 801 Lathrop Ave., Racine, in 1949, which came to be called the John Randal and Josephine McDonald house.
After it was finished, he moved in and lived there while he designed a house for 1001 Russet Street, which he then moved into in 1954 and lived there until at least 1983, according to records on file at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
While McDonald’s designs were initially modest, they later became grand as his reputation grew and those with larger budgets sought his designs.
The home at 8409 Three Mile Road, in Raymond, is an example. While the spacious four-bedroom home was his design, he died before seeing it to completion.
Look at two or three of McDonald’s designs, and the architect’s style comes into sharper focus.
Houses do not have to be square or round, McDonald told the Clearwater Sun in October 1959. He explained the architect should begin with a silhouette, and “should then execute that silhouette in beautiful materials — the rough texture of stone, the grain of wood, or a shaft of sunlight — creating his own sense of shape and form ... (by) abandoning the standardized.”
The preference for a beautiful silhouette and natural materials are on display in the Racine homes, his earliest known work.
The David and Mary Aldrich House reflects McDonald’s preference for the American Style, which includes the use of natural materials — such as wood and stone — to leave onlookers with the impression the home grew organically in its environment.
The border between home and the outside environment is loosely defined in the Aldrich house. Every bedroom has a sliding glass door leading to the backyard. The kitchen, too, has a door to the backyard.
In a 1955 interview with The Journal Times, quoted on the website dedicated to his work, McDonald said, “Open the house to the views around it with great expanses of glass. Allow the house to grow from the ground. Stone and wood, sunlight and shadow are the things to build with.”
McDonald died in 2003.
Olejniczak said someone with an imagination could really build a nice patio and give everyone in the house a peaceful view — as with the prairie landscape.
She said the house needs someone who “loves this style and who is going to want to do something fabulous with it.”
2721 Delaware Ave., a.k.a. the David and Mary Aldrich House designed by John Randal McDonald in the "American Architecture" style, is currently for sale.
Windows covering walls are typical of the "American Architecture" style utilized by architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and here by John Randal McDonald in the 1956 David and Mary Aldrich House, 2721 Delaware Ave.
The Priests of the Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic religious order, bought this singular home at 8409 Three Mile Road, apparently the last one designed by the prominent architect John Randal McDonald, in 2017.