Wright Conservancy awards Geneva owner of restored 1906 Hoyt House

Patricia MacLachlan said she remembers the day she and her late husband James learned a Prairie-style house that famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright had designed was available.

“We had been looking at Prairie School houses when they came on the market,” MacLachlan said. “We had been abroad for almost a month. The phone rings at seven in the morning and Paula says, ‘Hello, Trish? I’m divorcing Phil. Do you want the house?’ ”

The MacLachlans bought the PD Hoyt House at 318 S. Fifth St. in Geneva in 1974.

They spent years undoing what previous owners had done, chipping paint away from woodwork, uncovering a central fireplace, tearing off blue flock wallpaper and pulling out orange shag carpeting.

“It was as if people hated this house but just wanted a five-bedroom house in Geneva,” MacLachlan said. “It didn’t look anything like what the Wright drawings showed how it looked.”

Restoration and a fire

They restored it and then almost lost it in a fire in 2012 when a tree limb damaged by the emerald ash borer fell on overhanging electrical wiring.

So they restored it again.

“What it [the fire] did was afforded us an opportunity to rebuild according to Wright-made specifications for how the house is supposed to be built,” MacLachlan said. “We followed the specs.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy announced Patricia MacLachlan was named a recipient of the Wright Spirit Award in the private category.

“The award is given each year to recognize extraordinary commitment to preserving the built works of Frank Lloyd Wright and enriching his legacy,” according to a news release about the awards.

The award was a pleasant surprise.

“I had no idea there was a nomination,” MacLachlan said.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Wright was commissioned to design the house, which was built by Swedish immigrant brothers August and Oscar Wilson in 1906.

Known as the PD Hoyt House, MacLachlan said it should be known as the Agnes Hoyt House because his widow commissioned it after her husband’s death in 1903.

Pearl D. Hoyt was a Civil War veteran, according to the Geneva History Museum.

“This house cost $5,000. The average house in 1906 cost $1,800,” MacLachlan said. “It’s a grander house than the average house, but it’s considered modest by Frank Lloyd Wright standards. With five bedrooms, it was spacious and hardly tiny.”

In 1906, the house had a bath and a half, but now has two and a half baths, she said.

“In the 1950s, owners attached an all-weather room with jalousie window blinds made of glass,” MacLachlan said. “We cut it off from the house so it’s a separate summer room. We were able to restore the fenestration in the kitchen from which it was attached.”

One of the main pieces of restoration was the pergola that sheltered the front entrance. The previous owners had removed it and created an enclosed entryway.

An unexpected honor

Ron Duplack, a member of the Wright Conservancy board and architect Tannys Langdon nominated the Hoyt House. McLachlan said she had contacted the conservancy for help in restoring the stucco after the fire.

That’s when the Wright Conservancy people saw the restoration work up close and made the nomination.

There had been serious fire, smoke and water damage to much of the house, according to their nomination. In the post-fire restoration, the McLachlans completed additional work, including sand-finishing plaster throughout the first-floor rooms, according to the nomination.

“In addition to her beautiful restoration work at the Hoyt House, Patricia MacLachlan was an early advocate for restoration of Fabyan Villa, located within a mile of the Hoyt House and notable for Wright’s 1907 remodeling,” according to the nomination. “For this and for restoring the Hoyt House twice, we enthusiastically nominate Patricia MacLachlan for the Wright Spirit Award in the private category.”

MacLachlan said she will accept the award Saturday, Sept. 28, at the conservancy’s annual conference gala in Detroit.