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Oak Park couple opens their home for Frank Lloyd Wright housewalk

Ken and Patty Hunt have owned Frank Lloyd Wright's spectacular Arthur B. Heurtley House on Oak Park's famous Forest Avenue since early 2007. On May 20 they will open it to the public for the third time during the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust's annual Wright Plus Housewalk.

This annual event attracts thousands and has been presenting interior tours of rarely seen private homes and public buildings designed by Wright and his contemporaries since 1976. Proceeds support the restoration, preservation and education programs of the trust.

Patty Hunt admits they viewed the incomparable Heurtley house on a whim when it was up for sale.

"I had done major gut remodels of two other homes and I just didn't want to do another one, so I didn't even want to look at a Wright house, to be honest. My husband is not exactly Mr. Fixit and I knew it would become my project," she says.

But Ken Hunt really wanted to see the house and Patty finally relented.

And they were in for a huge surprise. The previous owners, Ed and Diana Baehren, had already spent four years doing a top-to-bottom restoration. "For us, it was like buying a 7-year-old house. All we had to do was maintain it," Patty says.

They were also enchanted by the bright, glossy birch wood inside, rather than the dark oak they had expected.

"When we walked out the door that day, Ed Baehren handed us a DVD he had made that chronicled the entire restoration and we went home that night and watched it, fascinated. The next day we made an offer," Patty says.

According to the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust website, the Heurtley home is "anchored to its site by a substantial stone water table. A low-hipped roof with broad, overhanging eaves, shelters the residence. The horizontal form of the building is further emphasized by Wright's use of two colors of Roman brick, laid in alternating, projecting bands. On the upper level of the house, in place of a decorative frieze, a continuous band of leaded glass casement windows extend across the facade.

Guests enter the Arthur B. Heurtley House, built in 1902, during the Wright Plus Housewalk in 2014. Shane Welch/Frank Lloyd Wright Trust

"Entrance to the house is via a heavy Romanesque arch. The ground floor is given over to a reception hall, a large reception room/playroom, guest rooms and a servant's hall. Similar in concept to Wright's Husser and Thomas houses, the principal rooms are elevated to the second story. In contrast to the darker lower level, the upstairs area is defined by airy, open and contiguous light-filled spaces. At the heart of the home, a substantial arched fireplace occupies a central position in the living room. In form and material, the fireplace echoes the prominent arch on the exterior of the building.

"Leaded glass windows that line the west side of the house, flood the main living spaces with light. An open-air elevated porch, accessed via French doors in the living room, blurs the division between interior and exterior space."

Though about 115 years old, the house feels modern to the Hunts.

"We have loved living in the house for the past 10 years," Patty says. "It is a very livable house with an open floor plan, which is really amazing considering that Wright built it in 1902 when everyone else was building Victorians that were essentially warrens of tiny rooms."

The Baehrens' restoration made much of that comfortable life possible, she admits. Prior to their restoration, the kitchen had been barely functional with old metal cabinets. So the Baehrens replicated the butler's pantry cabinets in the kitchen for an authentic Wright look and put in a reconditioned 1920 Magic Chef stove. But underneath those old-style cabinets, everything is very contemporary, even including warming drawers.

Arthur B. Heurtley House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1902). James Caulfield/Frank Lloyd Wright Trust

"Since we moved in, all we have really had to do is maintenance, but, of course, that is never straightforward in a 115-year-old house," she says. "The only significant change we have made has been to the space behind the three-car garage that the Baehrens built. They used it as an office but we have turned it into a Japanese-style guesthouse like one we stayed at in Kyoto. Wright loved Japan and we thought that this would be a nice way to honor him while also making the space different from the house."

Patty admits, however, that living in a Wright house in Oak Park or River Forest takes some getting used to because there are tourists walking by 365 days a year, taking thousands of photos. But for the most part, she said, they are polite and not disruptive.

Now a member of the trust's board of directors, Patty says she and Ken believe they are stewards of a national treasure, of sorts, so they open the house frequently for charity events and are very willing to periodically have it featured on the very well-run annual Wright Plus walk.

"That is an easy and nice way for us to give back to the community," she says. "The last time we did it was 2013 or 2014."

The Hunts had a particular reason for opening their home this year. Wright, who is arguably America's greatest architect, was born 150 years ago on June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin. To celebrate this milestone, the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust has made this year's walk, which they are calling "Wright Plus 150," a tour entirely centered around Forest and Kenilworth avenues, in an easily walkable loop around Wright's Home and Studio museum. No shuttle buses will be necessary this year.

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