| William R. Heath House | |
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Shown within New York
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| House information | |
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| Location | 76 Soldiers Place, Buffalo, NY |
| Coordinates | |
| Built | 1904 - 1905 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Prairie School |
| Construction type | Brick |
| Governing body | Private |
The William R. Heath House, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, built between 1904 & 1905, and is located at 76 Soldiers Place in Buffalo, New York. It is built in the Prairie School architectural style.
William Heath was a lawyer who served as office manager, and eventually vice-president, of the Larkin Soap Company in Buffalo.[1] Heath's wife Mary was a sister of Elbert Hubbard, a former Larkin executive.[1][2] Another Hubbard sister was married to company president John D. Larkin.[3][4] Hubbard had retired in 1893 and established the Roycroft Movement, an arts and crafts community in nearby East Aurora.[1]
Heath was introduced to Wright by fellow Larkin executive Darwin D. Martin,[5] though Heath was from Chicago and coincidentally had a brother-in-law from Oak Park on the building crew of Wright's J.J. Walser House.[6] Wright had arrived in Buffalo in 1903 to build a house for Martin,[5] and Martin was instrumental in selecting Wright as the architect for the Larkin Administration Building,[5] in downtown Buffalo, Wright's first major commercial project. Consequently Wright was commissioned to build a house by Heath, and in turn another Larkin employee Walter V. Davidson.
Heath's property was a deep and narrow corner lot, facing a large traffic circle, Soldiers Place, which insured that nothing would be built in front of it, and alongside Bird Avenue.[1] This presented Wright with the problem of situating a substantial Prairie house, with its characteristically open structure, in a confined space with twice the street exposure.[1] The house was placed with its long axis right up against the Bird Ave sidewalk with sections of the traffic circle acting as the grounds that a house of this standing would normally possess.[7]
Although only feet from the sidewalk the house retains a measure of privacy. Wright elevated the house itself on a terrace above the street level.[7] Hence the ground floor and the window levels of the principal living spaces are higher, restricting the view from Bird Ave of inside the house.[1] The front door is concealed adjacent to a broad chimney and is at a right angle to the street[7] and even with their height the windows are stained glass,[1] both acting as additionally screening devices.
The exterior features classic Prairie School elements; a low pitched hip roofs with projecting eaves, a large porch with large square supports, casement windows with art glass, and second story buttress piers, for example.[1] A two story garage was added in 1911[8] replacing a single story stable.[7]
The Heath house has seven bedrooms on the second floor as well as two bathrooms and a study.[7] The master bedroom, above the porch, has windows on three sides.[7] On the ground floor the dining room and living room open into each other, with the living room continuing out to the front porch.[7] The porch, living room and master bedroom face the traffic circle providing a view over the lawn. There is a service entrance through the kitchen and a servants' quarters including an additional two bedrooms.[7] In recent years the servants' quarters has been used as a doctor's office.[8] The house also features a half level basement[8], actually at street level and so lower than the ground floor, used a playroom by the Heath children.[7]
The house is built in dark red brick, possibly the same batch that was used for the Larkin Administration Building.[9] The ground floor is reminiscent of the Isidore H. Heller House[7], and the house is also considered similar to the Meyer May House [10] The Heath House is distinctive due to the house being designed to compensate for the narrow lot. It is considered a precursor to Wright’s renowned Frederick C. Robie House built in Chicago in 1909,[7] constructed on a similar sized block of land.
Other buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Buffalo area: