| John Haynes
House Anonymous Photographer 1/2/2006 PedroGringo@yahoo.com |
John Haynes House: 1950, Fort Wayne, Indiana
Do you want to live in a Wright home .... even if its only for a weekend? One of the truly rare things about the Haynes House is that it is available for holiday rental. There are very few Wright homes available for rental like the Haynes House. You can count them on one hand and have a finger or two left over. The unique thing about the Haynes house is the quality of the restoration. The owner has recreated all of the original furnishings. This home is truly amazing. Look at the photos below and you'll see.
Click HERE for the Haynes House Rental Page
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Constructed from brick and tidewater cypress, the Haynes house has many similarities to the other Usonian homes that Wright designed. One thing that makes the Haynes house stand out is its roof. It isn’t flat. There’s a low hip to it which makes it rare among Mr. Wright’s homes designed at that time. The interior ceiling follows the roofline, adding a wonderful sense of space and openness to the living room, music room and hallway.
The Haynes House was originally designed for a family of 4. It has three bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room and dining room that blend together, a music room (converted to a library) and kitchen.
You can see from the photos that the living room’s feature is the view. The room is dominated by tall windows that fill the room with light and blur the line between inside and out. The cantilevered fireplace is also a work of art. I read that the brick mason did not believe that the fireplace would stand without the braces that held it up during construction. Mr. Haynes himself was called to the house to kick the supports out. The fireplace stayed in place as it remains today.
By the time the Haynes house was designed, Mr. Wright was putting more emphasis on making his workspaces more usable. Gone were the cramped, tiny kitchens of some of his early designs. Though not a dominant room in the house, it is not only very functional, it is LIGHT (thanks to a skylight) and a very nice room in which to cook.
At 1340 square feet, it is small, but very livable. I’ve read that the Haynes family had a party with 40-50 people in the home and it didn’t feel crowded. Their kids used to ride tricycles around on the radiant heat floor.
As with most Wright homes, the interest is not only in the building itself, but also in its history. Possibly the most interesting thing about the Haynes house is the years that it spent in anonymity. One article I read from 1991 (from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel) talked about how the Haynes House wasn’t believed to be built by Wright for many years. Early copies of William Allin Storrer’s book, “The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog” didn’t include the house. The article quotes Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, long-time archivist for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, “It’s definitely authentic. We have Wright’s working drawings of the home. But we simply had no record that the house had ever been built until Mr. Shoaff (the third owner) sent us pictures.”
From what I can tell, the Haynes house has had 4 or 5 owners. John Haynes and his wife Dorothy contacted Mr. Wright in 1949 to see if he would design a home for their small family. At that point they had two young children. They traveled to Taliesin that year to consult with Mr. Wright. The same article from the News-Sentinel quotes Dorothy Haynes Stock, (former wife of John Haynes),
“I remember (Mr. Wright) wearing a tam and cape and carrying a cane.
He was very impressive, but I had a nice, regular conversation with him.
It didn’t seem like he was someone special. It was just like two people
talking.”
When the plans arrived in early 1951, there were problems. Not only was Mrs.
Haynes getting ready to have the family’s third child, but they had
trouble finding a contractor to build the house. That is a reoccurring theme
in Wright’s history as an architect. In the early 1950s, as they were
throughout his career, Wright’s designs were radical to say the least.
The instance mentioned above with the fireplace was not at all uncommon.
They Haynes finally found a builder and the home was eventually completed
in 1952 at a cost of $52,000. The quoted price had been $25,000.
The Haynes family loved the house. Their neighbors thought it was a bit too radical. Mrs. Stock continues, “Most people thought we were crazy. People would ask, ‘What is it, a filling station?’ But then, in 1952, not very many people appreciated Frank Lloyd Wright.”
Unfortunately the family grew to the point that they just couldn’t keep it. By 1958 they had 6 children and the home was just not big enough for 8 people to live in. They had a circular home built next door and moved into that.
The Haynes house was then sold to a banker, a Mr. McDonald. There was one owner on which I have no information.
In 1973, the Haynes House was purchased by the local architect John Shoaff. He purchased the house for $38,000. He loved the house and lived in it until 1999 when he put it on the market.
I’ve had a great dialog with the current owner of the house. He has done an amazing job of restoring the home to its original form (with appropriate upgrades) and having original furnishings built for the home. All you have to do is look at the photos to see the quality of restoration that was done. Don’t you want to live in it? You can for a weekend.
Thanks for reading.
