Stan Hywet Hall

I've long been a fan of the Historic American Buildings Survey, one of the many projects created in the 1930s to make work for the millions of unemployed Americans. It hired photographers, many with a fine art leaning, to document historic American buildings and structures. Many structures include extensive interior documentation, which should be quite useful for historical researchers. I've yet to find another source that provides such exhaustive documentation of bathrooms and kitchens from the 1910s and 1920s. The downside is that the homes chosen tend to be some of the largest and most opulent of the era, so they are not too representative of what one might call average.



The Historic American Buildings Survey includes extensive documetation of one of the great Tudor Revival mansions in America, Stan Hywet Hall, which was built in Akron, Ohio, in the 1910s by F. A. Seiberling, founder of the Goodyear Tire Company. While the house is open to the public as a musuem, the documentation provided by HABS is especially interesting as photographs are not allowed inside the house. The Survey includes photographs of the house, the carriage house and garage, the gate house and entrance gates, the garden house and garden, the gardener's house, and the lookouts.



The following are some of my favorite photographs of the house, from the Historic American Buildings Survey.


View from the office wing.


Lamp, by the main entrance.


Trim detail, main entrance.






Library


Library fireplace


Removable lamp, library.


Main kitchen.


Coat room. Note the nice original widespread faucets.


Great hall.


Elevator.


Ceiling detail.


Light fixture.


Carved stone springblock.


Mrs. Seiberling's bathroom. I find the use of a tankless toilet interesting - while this would make sense in a smaller bathroom, lack of space definitely was not an issue here.


Mr. Seiberling's bathroom. Note the ribcage shower. It appears that the shower pan is not tile, but a solid piece of ceramic.


Inglenook, Blue Bedroom.


Phone nook, with period telephone.


Second floor room.


Office wing.


Even the gate house is oversized - bigger than the houses of many of the readers of the blog, I would wager.

This is the sort of project, I think, that would be an excellent way for our tax dollars to be spent - this is what we should be doing instead of bailing out banks. The public works created in the 1930s endure today - why not do more now?

It's not quite David Giffels' house...

I like to look for photographs of other houses on Flickr for the same reasons that I enjoy reading house blogs - they provide inspiration, ideas, and a way to see other possible solutions to a given problem. I'm especially interested in other Tudors.



Imagine my surprise when I saw this house, 759 N. Portage Path, Akron, OH, a few months ago. The house is about 3500 square feet, on 3/4 of an acre, just across the street from the most famous Tudor Revival house of all, F. A. Seiberling's Stan Hywet Hall.



At the time, the house was for sale, and the photographer didn't seem terribly interested in making others aware of this great bargain. Now that it has been sold (at the beginning of January, for $120,000), I've contacted the photographer, Andy Flip who has given me permission to post some of his photographs of this great house. I love the way the radiator here is tucked under the stairs.



Check out the front door.



The trim in the dining room is really special. If one had a nice art collection, it would fit perfectly in such borders. Heck, this might be an interesting design idea for a room or two in our house.



The basement bathroom, however, was what really caught my attention. Usually, the basement bathroom is lucky to get four walls. A sink, even, is less than common. So this one, with walls covered in structural glass, (Vitrolite and Carrara Glass were two common brands), surprised me.



Another bathroom also had walls tiled with structural glass, albeit not in as good of condition. The medicine cabinet and sink are also quite lovely.



I'm afraid to ask what happened to the sink here.

I should note that David Giffels, who I mentioned in the title of this entry, is the author of All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House. Giffels' Tudor Revival house is also on North Portage Path in Akron, albeit closer to the center of the city. His book is a great read. Given the choice, I'd take this house over his and deal with slowly rehabbing it over an extended period.

Again, I thank Andy Flip for allowing me to post his photographs.