#756 Wait, Is That Our Porch?

Our front porch is the most in-your-face architectural feature of our bungalow. Massive tapered river rock columns support a network of wooden beams shaped into an over-sized truss jutting forward from the house toward College Street. Until recently, we thought our porch and its unusual truss unique. 

Stained glass artist Randall Bush memorialized the porch and truss design in stained glass. 

Mary Kate Miller Coleman and her husband built our porch-centric house in 1914. Mary Kate's dad, T.A. Miller was kind of a big deal. Miller, Missouri was named in his honor when he brought the railroad to that town. He built the Lawrence County Courthouse. He was elected mayor of Aurora where he built the Presbyterian Church. He owned ten lumber yards. 

Until now we've assumed, without proof, he also built his daughter's house with that unique truss-covered porch. 

This week while browsing "Lawrence County in Pictures and Prose", a 1922 book about our county's history, we spied this grainy truss-centric photo:  

Look at that truss. That's OUR truss! 

Miller bought this Hoberg lumber company around 1910 and "added largely to it" according to "Lawrence County Missouri History", another local history book published in 1974.  

Did T.A. Miller add this decorative truss to his newly-acquired Hoberg lumber yard in 1910?

Did Mary Kate and her hubby ask her dad to use that same unique truss design when he built their dream bungalow in 1914?

Yours in piecing together this truss puzzle,
Kelly 

#731 Deck to Patio

Converting the deck to a patio is a BIG project!

Thank goodness we have friends and family to help.  When we find the ideal limestone ledge rock at a farm auction south of Aurora last fall, we win the bid for a whopping $50 and start planning a patio.

With the help of our nephew, his skid loader and trailer, the ledge rock is soon residing at our home. Some say the pile of rock even begins to taunt us as we take our time planning our course of action.

The large, well-constructed, 2-level, wooden deck was built by the homeowners two times removed and was starting to show its age.

In removing the deck, we work toward three goals: reduce annual maintenance, increase yard space, and expose the rock foundation on the east side of the house.  We get to work removing the wooden structure with the help of our friend Randall. 

And we find a good home for the lumber too!

We borrow our nephew's hydraulic Deweze hay truck to help extract the deck posts.

And voila!  The wooden deck is gone.

A lot of work is needed on the former-coal-chute-turned-basement-window now revealed by the removal of the deck.  The plywood window covering is replaced with masonry and glass blocks.  The dryer vent, electricity, and sump drain are re-routed through the glass block. 

We are happy to learn that our great-nephew excels at washing basement windows.

Finally, we get to examine those individual pieces of ledge rock up close and personal as we figure out the puzzle of making them fit, lay them down, and make sure each one is level with a slight tip away from the house. 

After we fill in some gravel around the rocks and dirt around the patio,

it's time to enjoy a well-deserved hot dog - on the patio, of course.

Yours in appreciating family and friends in our transition from deck to patio,
Mary Jo

#729 Lewis and Kate

When we purchased our bungalow in 2009, we immediately started researching its history.  We've learned so much since then due to the truly wonderful research tools at our disposal:

• Aurora Advertiser, microfilmed copies of our local newspaper housed in the Mount Vernon public library
• Aurora Historical Society, its collections, and its collective memory 
• Census records in Ancestry.com
• eBay and its numerous Aurora postcards by phenomenal photographer R.E. Hinchey
• Facebook groups familiar with the house and its previous owners
• FindaGrave.com
• Google Maps with its historic street views
• a Hairstylist who knows the locals
• another Hairstylist who knows the locals
• House owners and family of house owners
• Lawrence County Historical Society
• Lawrence County recorder office  
• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps housed at University of Missouri and Library of Congress
• Yale University's Beinecke Library and its preserved and digitized copy of Hinchey's 1907 Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri book of photos

Our most recent discoveries are the photos of Lewis Shaw Coleman and Mary Kate Miller Coleman.  This young couple has captured our imaginations for years because while still in their 20s, Lewis and Kate built an architecturally unique airplane bungalow in small-town Aurora. We have been most eager to lay our eyes on their faces and thanks to the work of the Aurora Historical Society, we are thrilled to digitally hold these images in our house history collection.  

Lewis Shaw Coleman

Mary Kate Miller Coleman

We very much appreciate many library and archival institutions for the good work they do.  And we are especially grateful for those small-town organizations all around the country, such as the Aurora Historical Society and the Lawrence County Historical Society, for working on shoestring budgets in order to accomplish so much in the collection and preservation of historic documents and artifacts that help us tell our story.

Yours in appreciating the great work of local historical societies,
Mary Jo

#728 Ozarks Bungalow walls

We learn a lot during our Aurora haircuts!

In 2015, while getting a haircut at the Hair Shed, Jackie connected us with a descendant of the Seburn family who built the house on our lot prior to ours.

When Jackie retires a couple years later, we find Rachel whose shop is visible from our home.   It isn't long before we learn that Rachel grew up in our neighborhood and her grandfather knows a lot about our house. 

After an in-depth conversation with Rachel's grandfather, we learn the identity of the bricklayer and stone mason. Harry Darnold and his partner Charley Walters were the masons who built the brick and stone portions of our house like the columns on the front porch.

Charley Walters at lower left

Yours in gratitude for Aurora hairstylists and for the skilled masons who built our house,
Mary Jo

#727 Tire Teacup

Where do you go for supplies when you want to make a teacup out of old tires?  My brother's farm, of course! 

Sure enough, we spot an old tractor tire under the leaves that he no longer needs.

The big tractor tire and three big truck tires are too big for our car, but that's OK because my nephew has a big truck.  Perfect!  We get them home and start to work.

 

Kelly says he's never used his sawzall to cut open a tire.  Go figure. 

 

But look!  It works. Steel-belted tires are tricky but Kelly and the sawzall power through.

It works on the big tractor tire too.

Our teacup takes shape with all 4 pieces cut from old tires.

Following a thorough cleaning, two coats of Kilz primer goes on each piece.

 

The pink coat goes on next.  We found the pink paint (officially known as dusty rose) in the basement left behind by earlier homeowners.  There wasn't any pink still in the house when we moved in, so there's no telling how long this paint has been around.  It still sticks well to tires, though.

A few polka dots add a little whimsy.  Four screws hold the handle to the cup.  And we're now ready for the annual car event at the park across the street on Saturday.

Yours in getting into the automotive spirit,

Mary

#726 Happy 150th, Frank Lloyd Wright!

Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150 birthday is coming up on June 8, 2017.   

In celebration of that important event, I interviewed Kelly, the Wright expert in my life. 

When did you first learn of Wright?

It was Wright’s furniture, not his architecture, that first grabbed my attention.  My dad was a carpenter and I remember becoming interested in old oak furniture through my folks and their friends Jim and Phyllis.  I started looking at books about oak furniture and came across Wright’s furniture designs.  I’m lucky to have had such an early introduction to carpentry through my dad. 

What do you remember about your first visit to a Wright house?

In 1995, I visited Wright's last Prairie House, the Allen house in Wichita.  From the street, the red tile roof and horizontal lines stood out.  I remember the large, open living room.  We had to pass through the entry space, a gateway of sorts, and I felt special about being inside the house, standing in the living space, slightly elevated and sheltered from the street outside and still connected to the outdoors.  This house made me even more curious about Wright and the following year, I attended my first Wright Plus Housewalk in Oak Park, IL.

So you’ve been following Wright for more than 20 years.  Would you call yourself a fan?

Yes, I’m a fan of his architecture, his furniture, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his vision.  He foresaw how the auto would change the way we live.  And how it would change the way our cities look.  His Broadacre City urban planning ideas were centered around a mobile, auto-centric middle class which shortly came to fruition.

And how do you think your interest in Wright has changed the way you live?

It has made me more thoughtful about design and about how your surroundings make you feel.  The horizontal line as the line of domesticity is something I’ve thought about when renovating our Ozarks bungalow.  It really does inspire calm. I appreciate how Wright’s architecture blends with the landscape and helps the occupants feel connected to the landscape. 

I’m married to you so I know you may have more to say about this question.  How else do you think your interest in Wright has changed the way you live? 

Learning about how much he cared about the way house design impacts his occupants has made me more thoughtful and more intentional about that same topic.   Eliminating unnecessary clutter and ornamentation from life has simplified and improved it.  To learn about people, look at their buildings. 

You mention the Ozarks bungalow.  Would you say that its 1914 design was influenced by Wright?   
His Prairie houses from that time period blurred the line between inside and out and I think the design of this house does the same.  I see concepts that he popularized with walls of glass and connections to the landscape from each of the rooms. The wide overhangs do deliver that sense of shelter.  One of the reviewers for our National Register nomination commented that our house combines Craftsman Bungalow and Prairie elements. 

What are some of the benefits of your interest in Wright?

Wright connects me with a community of scholars, architects, students, lovers of Wright, haters of Wright, and has given me a reason to visit buildings off the beaten path from Japan to Buffalo. Through Wright, I first learned of Fay Jones, whose large body of work is centered around Arkansas, his home state, near where we live.  Training and volunteering as a guide for Wright’s Bachman-Wilson house at Crystal Bridges Museum upped my game while connecting me with like-minded guides and museum guests.  

What do you wish I would have asked you about Wright that I haven’t?

How many Wright buildings have you visited and which would you most like to see? 

How many Wright buildings have you visited and which would you most like to see?    
We’ve seen about 50 Wright buildings.  There are about 70 open to the public.   I’d most like to see Teater’s Knoll in Bliss, Idaho because of its remote dramatic location overlooking the Snake River and its soaring native stone and glass construction.  It is privately owned and not regularly open for tours. The pictures look fabulous!  

Finally, what are you going to do to celebrate Mr. Wright's 150th birthday?
We have two fun Wright events planned this week and another this summer.  This week, I'll be giving a couple tours of the Bachman-Wilson house at Crystal Bridges - which I love doing.  And we'll also be touring for the first time the Sondern-Adler home in Kansas City.  This summer, we'll be attending MOMA's exhibit, Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive. In between, I'll probably pull a book off one of my Wright shelves for re-reading.  But, as you well know, we celebrate Wright a lot around here even when it's not his birthday.   

#724 Digging in the Dirt

Today, we ask Sam what he wants to do.  His reply, "Dig!"

That's not really a surprise to those who know him, so we, of course, are ready with a digging project.

These hostas are crowding out our beautiful yellow irises, so they're off to a new shady home on the other side of the house.  Since this effort requires much digging, Kelly and Sam find their personal shovels and everyone is thrilled about the work ahead.   

Since one hosta is too large for the bucket, Kelly carries the plant around the house while Sam carries the shovels.

Preparing the new hosta home is the most fun of all.  Sometimes the shovel gets away from you and the dirt flies up on the stone wall.  Some dirt even hits the window and lands all the way up on the windowsill!  

Sometimes after enthusiastic digging, you find the hole is too deep and needs to be un-dug. 

That's just the price you pay to get the job done until you can relax with some shenanigans on the porch and celebrate your efforts.

Yours in digging,
Mary Jo

#707 National Register of Historic Places

Our house is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places!

The NRHP is the official list of historic places worthy of preservation in the US.  It recognizes the architectural significance of the house and helps to raise awareness of the importance of historic preservation in southwest Missouri.

Though we often refer to our house as the Ozarks Bungalow, the official name is the Lewis Shaw Coleman House.  Mr. Coleman and his wife Mary Kate Miller Coleman, whose families both owned area lumber yards, built the house in 1914 on a corner lot overlooking Oak Park.  The Colemans chose a Craftsman bungalow for the style of their new home and included exposed rafters in open eaves, low-pitched gable roofs with wide overhangs, decorative gable beams, large windows to connect the house with nature, and a prominent front porch with tapered stone columns.  (For more details, see our nomination.)

The Craftsman bungalow style was unusual for Aurora in 1914 and so the construction project made the local paper.  The Aurora Advertiser reported the Coleman family was "completing a beautiful bungalow on East College" and the new Coleman bungalow showed "the progressive spirit of the city." 

Four homeowners later, we are thrilled to be awarded this NRHP listing recognizing the architectural significance of what the Colemans envisioned a century ago.  It is the only building in Aurora included on the NRHP.

In our excitement, we print this temporary plaque to hang by the front door!

Yours in living in an historic place,
Mary

#706 Topping it off

Sometimes when you clean something, you get a better look and decide it needs more than a good cleaning. It should be repaired.

This summer, we cleaned the masonry cap on our brick wall and discovered it was a lovely tan color rather than a dingy gray.  (The builders achieved that tan color using a skim coat of white Portland cement with exposed aggregate sand and we love it.)  But we also discovered the need to repair many cracks.

In previous years, the cap had been patched with a gray cement - perhaps to match its then dingy gray color but more likely because white cement is uncommon here in Missouri.  It's a good thing we enjoy a good road trip because Texas has gads of white cement!  

Chip out the old gray cement patch.

Install clamps to support the new masonry.

Spray water to prepare the old cement.

Start filling the crack with white cement.

Complete filling the crack with white cement.

Expose the sand aggregrate to help match the existing masonry.  (Kelly had sifted out the large sand grains through screen wire to collect enough of the needed size.)

Admire the finished product.

Repeat 17 times!

We're hoping these fixes will keep the cracks from widening this winter.  Plus we just think it looks better.

Yours in fixing up the outside and topping off the brick wall,
Mary

#704 National Register - On to the Keeper

The state of Missouri recommends listing our house on the National Register of Historic Places!

August 19 is a beautiful day in the City of Jefferson and Kelly is ready to make our case to the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. He arrives at the Lewis and Clark State Office building, a very green building on the banks of the Missouri River, carrying his notes on months of research.  He is ready.

Most importantly, we stack the audience with friendly faces.

Kelly expertly tells the story of our house.  Following questions, comments and compliments, the Council votes unanimously to forward our National Register nomination to the Keeper at the National Park Service for the ultimate decision.

We are excited to move the nomination forward and thankful to all those who have supported our efforts with good wishes and advice and hospitality and custom, hand-crafted gifts!

We expect to hear the Keeper's decision by the end of October so stay tuned.

In the meantime, let's celebrate!

Yours in celebration,
Mary