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Edward E. Boynton House
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Edward E. Boynton House
The Edward E. Boynton House (1908) was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Rochester, New York. This privately owned prairie-style home was commissioned by widower Edward Everett Boynton and his teenage daughter Beulah Boynton. According to Beulah Boynton (recounted to Times Union reporter William Ringle in 1955) it cost her father between $45,000 – $50,000 for the house, the lot and the contents – a staggering sum in 1908 (adjusted for inflation, approx. $10 million in 2021). This two-story, approximately 5,500 square foot home, was originally situated on an acre lot in the city of Rochester. Seventeen pieces of original Frank Lloyd Wright furniture remain in the house.
Edward Everett Boynton was a successful lantern salesman and partner in the C. T. Ham Manufacturing Co. of Rochester. Despite his financial success, Boynton's personal life was marked by tragedy. Three of his four children died at a young age, including his daughter Beulah's twin sister Bessie. On April 13, 1900 (Friday the 13th) his wife died. Beulah told Times Union Reporter William Ringle, "My father had no hobbies but me." When Boynton decided to move out of his home at 44 Vick Park B in Rochester, New York he commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design what would become Rochester's only Wright-designed home. Beulah Boynton recalled, "I wanted Claude Bragdon to build our house. My father was quite taken with Wright." Edward Boynton learned of Frank Lloyd Wright through a business partner, Warren McArthur. Wright designed the Warren McArthur House in the Kenwood District of Chicago in 1892. In 1906, Boynton commissioned the architect to design a home on an expansive piece of property on East Boulevard. Construction started in 1907 and the house was completed in 1908. Beulah Boynton was a teenager when she met Frank Lloyd Wright. She became very interested and involved in the design and construction of house. "I learned to read specs. I spotted an error in the masons laying the fireplace."
The original deed to the property was recorded on May 13, 1907 and the building permit (certificate of occupancy) was granted on May 15, 1908. "The building permit, #10988, lists a two story frame and plaster dwelling, 5h'~ x 115', valuation, $10,000." Boynton was listed as "builder-owner" on the building permit, Frank Lloyd Wright as architect, and the contractors were Gorsline and Swan." George T. Swan, son of the late George L. Swan, recalled his father saying, "The contractors expected trouble with Wright but discovered to their surprise and delight that reasonably amicable relations with him were possible so long as they adhered exactly to his specifications and instructions." He continued, "He made no great trial for contractors," said Swan, "but he gave the workmen fits." I was too young to have known Mr. Wright but I heard a great deal about him from my father.
Originally the Edward E. Boynton house occupied an approximately one acre lot. In addition to the 5,450 square foot residence, the property was home to a 30-foot by 60-foot reflecting pool, a tennis court, magnificent gardens and 28 American Elm trees. The driveway stretched the length of a city block – from East Boulevard to Hawthorn Street.
Beulah and Edward Boynton lived at 16 East Boulevard for ten years. During that period, the Boyntons (one of the early automobile owners in the area) erected a garage on the property. Edward Boynton employed a cook, two maids (one for upstairs, one for downstairs), and two gardeners (one doubled as the chauffeur) during their stay. After Beulah Boynton married Ransom Noble Kalbfleisch, he moved into the Boynton house joining his bride and her father. A daughter, Jean, was born in 1914. In 1919 Beulah and Jean moved to New York City with Kalbfleisch so he could work at the stock exchange. Edward Boynton joined them in New York and lived with them until his death on December 27, 1938.
The house sat vacant for a year until June 1, 1919 until J. Oswald Dailey purchased it.
The 1920s were a tumultuous time for both the country and the Boynton house. According to family members, Dailey lost all of his money and his wife's money speculating in commodity futures. In a financial bind, Dailey subdivided the property into two building lots that he sold for $22,000. The tennis court, formal gardens, pool, and fountain were removed. Two additional homes were built on the original Boynton plot, "one on Hawthorn Street, at the back of the property, and the other on East Boulevard. (Beulah recalled during an interview with William Ringle in 1955, "There are now three other houses on what was the original lot. The porch was originally open, now it's glassed in." On April 18, 1921, the title to Wright's Boynton house was transferred to Florence C. Dailey. She failed make the loan payments and the bank took control. On October 19, 1925, Elizabeth J. Burns assumed the $18,000 mortgage held by the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company.
When he was 65 years old Frank Lloyd Wright returned to Rochester after an invitation to speak to a sold out crowd at the Memorial Art Gallery. On November 14, 1932, accompanied by Memorial Art Gallery Director Gertrude Moore, Mr. Wright drove by the Edward E. Boynton House and was enraged by the sight of the current diminished lot and external drainage pipes originating from the roof. Decades later Democrat & Chronicle reporter Katharine Seelye interviewed Gertrude Moore. Ms. Moore recounted, Wright literally "rose in his wrath before her eyes...and in his distress banged his head on the ceiling of the cab. The driver was ordered on." "They've wrapped conductor pipes around my plane spaces!" he shrieked. "They have destroyed my house!" Still reeling from the sight of his house, Frank Lloyd Wright ranted throughout his evening lecture at the Memorial Art Gallery. "Mr. Wright came to the platform (at the gallery) under a cloud of pessimism," the Democrat and Chronicle reported the next day. "He expressed himself as well convinced that no words of his could awaken the modern individual to the degradation of (contemporary) architecture (which was) 'pseudo this and pseudo that and never expressive of himself or his surroundings.'" Ms. Moore reimbursed the architect for his hotel bill and railroad fare but requested a downward adjustment to his speaking fee. Frank Lloyd Wright never returned to Rochester again.
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Edward E. Boynton House
The Edward E. Boynton House (1908) was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Rochester, New York. This privately owned prairie-style home was commissioned by widower Edward Everett Boynton and his teenage daughter Beulah Boynton. According to Beulah Boynton (recounted to Times Union reporter William Ringle in 1955) it cost her father between $45,000 – $50,000 for the house, the lot and the contents – a staggering sum in 1908 (adjusted for inflation, approx. $10 million in 2021). This two-story, approximately 5,500 square foot home, was originally situated on an acre lot in the city of Rochester. Seventeen pieces of original Frank Lloyd Wright furniture remain in the house.
Edward Everett Boynton was a successful lantern salesman and partner in the C. T. Ham Manufacturing Co. of Rochester. Despite his financial success, Boynton's personal life was marked by tragedy. Three of his four children died at a young age, including his daughter Beulah's twin sister Bessie. On April 13, 1900 (Friday the 13th) his wife died. Beulah told Times Union Reporter William Ringle, "My father had no hobbies but me." When Boynton decided to move out of his home at 44 Vick Park B in Rochester, New York he commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design what would become Rochester's only Wright-designed home. Beulah Boynton recalled, "I wanted Claude Bragdon to build our house. My father was quite taken with Wright." Edward Boynton learned of Frank Lloyd Wright through a business partner, Warren McArthur. Wright designed the Warren McArthur House in the Kenwood District of Chicago in 1892. In 1906, Boynton commissioned the architect to design a home on an expansive piece of property on East Boulevard. Construction started in 1907 and the house was completed in 1908. Beulah Boynton was a teenager when she met Frank Lloyd Wright. She became very interested and involved in the design and construction of house. "I learned to read specs. I spotted an error in the masons laying the fireplace."
The original deed to the property was recorded on May 13, 1907 and the building permit (certificate of occupancy) was granted on May 15, 1908. "The building permit, #10988, lists a two story frame and plaster dwelling, 5h'~ x 115', valuation, $10,000." Boynton was listed as "builder-owner" on the building permit, Frank Lloyd Wright as architect, and the contractors were Gorsline and Swan." George T. Swan, son of the late George L. Swan, recalled his father saying, "The contractors expected trouble with Wright but discovered to their surprise and delight that reasonably amicable relations with him were possible so long as they adhered exactly to his specifications and instructions." He continued, "He made no great trial for contractors," said Swan, "but he gave the workmen fits." I was too young to have known Mr. Wright but I heard a great deal about him from my father.
Originally the Edward E. Boynton house occupied an approximately one acre lot. In addition to the 5,450 square foot residence, the property was home to a 30-foot by 60-foot reflecting pool, a tennis court, magnificent gardens and 28 American Elm trees. The driveway stretched the length of a city block – from East Boulevard to Hawthorn Street.
Beulah and Edward Boynton lived at 16 East Boulevard for ten years. During that period, the Boyntons (one of the early automobile owners in the area) erected a garage on the property. Edward Boynton employed a cook, two maids (one for upstairs, one for downstairs), and two gardeners (one doubled as the chauffeur) during their stay. After Beulah Boynton married Ransom Noble Kalbfleisch, he moved into the Boynton house joining his bride and her father. A daughter, Jean, was born in 1914. In 1919 Beulah and Jean moved to New York City with Kalbfleisch so he could work at the stock exchange. Edward Boynton joined them in New York and lived with them until his death on December 27, 1938.
The house sat vacant for a year until June 1, 1919 until J. Oswald Dailey purchased it.
The 1920s were a tumultuous time for both the country and the Boynton house. According to family members, Dailey lost all of his money and his wife's money speculating in commodity futures. In a financial bind, Dailey subdivided the property into two building lots that he sold for $22,000. The tennis court, formal gardens, pool, and fountain were removed. Two additional homes were built on the original Boynton plot, "one on Hawthorn Street, at the back of the property, and the other on East Boulevard. (Beulah recalled during an interview with William Ringle in 1955, "There are now three other houses on what was the original lot. The porch was originally open, now it's glassed in." On April 18, 1921, the title to Wright's Boynton house was transferred to Florence C. Dailey. She failed make the loan payments and the bank took control. On October 19, 1925, Elizabeth J. Burns assumed the $18,000 mortgage held by the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company.
When he was 65 years old Frank Lloyd Wright returned to Rochester after an invitation to speak to a sold out crowd at the Memorial Art Gallery. On November 14, 1932, accompanied by Memorial Art Gallery Director Gertrude Moore, Mr. Wright drove by the Edward E. Boynton House and was enraged by the sight of the current diminished lot and external drainage pipes originating from the roof. Decades later Democrat & Chronicle reporter Katharine Seelye interviewed Gertrude Moore. Ms. Moore recounted, Wright literally "rose in his wrath before her eyes...and in his distress banged his head on the ceiling of the cab. The driver was ordered on." "They've wrapped conductor pipes around my plane spaces!" he shrieked. "They have destroyed my house!" Still reeling from the sight of his house, Frank Lloyd Wright ranted throughout his evening lecture at the Memorial Art Gallery. "Mr. Wright came to the platform (at the gallery) under a cloud of pessimism," the Democrat and Chronicle reported the next day. "He expressed himself as well convinced that no words of his could awaken the modern individual to the degradation of (contemporary) architecture (which was) 'pseudo this and pseudo that and never expressive of himself or his surroundings.'" Ms. Moore reimbursed the architect for his hotel bill and railroad fare but requested a downward adjustment to his speaking fee. Frank Lloyd Wright never returned to Rochester again.
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