Tallahassee Democrat 07/09/2015

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It is easy to miss Spring House, theonly private home in Florida built by thecolossus American architect FrankLloyd Wright.

The modest-sized, boat-shapedhouse is nestled in a wooded lot in northTallahassee and nearly hidden fromview thanks to all the oak trees and lushplants. It is not overwhelming likeWright’s iconic, rounded GuggenheimMuseum in Midtown Manhattan or asdramatic as the famed Fallingwaterhouse in Pennsylvania.

“It’s one of two pod-shaped housesthat Mr. Wright designed late in his ca-reer,” Byrd Lewis Mashburn, 70, said on

a recent morning at Spring House,which was built by her parents, Georgeand Clifton Lewis, in 1954. “It was de-signed at the same time as the Guggen-heim. The only other pod-shaped homehe designed was for his son, LlewellynWright, in Bethesda, Maryland.”

It’s proving to be a big job to restorean architectural treasure built byFrank Lloyd Wright in Tallahassee

Charting theWright course

D.A. ROBIN/DEMOCRAT

Above: Byrd Mashburn grew up inSpring House, the only private homein Florida designed by vauntedarchitect Frank Lloyd Wright. Top:Spring House is nestled in a woodyarea on the outskirts of Tallahassee.

SEEING SPRING HOUSE

Walk through history by visiting theonly private residence in Florida builtby world-famous architect FrankLloyd Wright during the SecondSunday Tour from 2 to 4 p.m. Sundayat Spring House, off OkeeheepkeeRoad, which runs off North MonroeStreet, just north of Interstate 10.Tickets are $15 per person, and thetour is limited to 100 people. Chil-dren under 12 get in free. Visitwww.preservespringhouse.orgfor reservations.

Mark HinsonDemocrat senior writer

“Spring House is aninspiring space to visit,whether you knowanything about Wright’swork or not.”FROST BURKE, Spring House Institute

See WRIGHT » 8A

ONLINESee a video and photo gallery fromSpring House at Tallahassee.com.

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Vol. 110, Issue No. 190, July 9, 2015

A Gannett newspaperCopyright 2015 Tallahassee Democrat

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USA TODAY VICTIMS GROUP ASKS OBAMA TO REVOKE COSBY’S MEDAL PAGE 1B

Tallahassee city commissioners on a3-2 vote Wednesday approved an in-crease in the city property tax rate fornext year, but they remain far fromreaching a consensus on a spendingplan.

The approved property tax rate equa-tes to a 23-percent increase as opposedto the 27-percent increase City ManagerAnita Favors Thompson presented tocommissioners two weeks ago.

For the owner of a home with an as-sessed value of $150,000 and a $50,000

homestead exemption,the increase means pay-ing an additional $7.08 amonth, said Michelle Bo-no, assistant to the citymanager. The 4.55 prop-erty tax rate would gen-erate about $42.4 millionfor fiscal year 2016, or

about $9.5 million more than last year’sadopted budget.

Heath Beach, the city’s budget man-ager, said the budget was adjusted by$1.3 million. To get there, departmentswill have to reduce expenses by$671,000, some projects will be delayedfor a year, saving $290,000.

The proposed 3 percent merit pay in-creases for general employees was re-duced to 2 percent, saving about$451,000. No layoffs are expected.

The budget still provides for an addi-tional 16 new police officers, two inves-tigators and other items requested forthe Tallahassee Police Department.

Also reduced was the $660,000 pro-

CITYAGREESON AREDUCEDTAX HIKE But commissionersfar from consensuson a spending planByron DobsonDemocrat staff writer@byrondobson on Twitter

INSIDECity passesUberordinance.Page 3A

JOE RONDONE/DEMOCRAT FILES

Tallahassee budget manager Heath Beach,center, said the budget was adjusted by $1.3 million.

See TAX » 6A

A Tallahassee woman who didn’t gether ailing mother medical help becauseof religious beliefs is facing manslaugh-ter and elder neglect charges after thewoman died last month.

Marsha Ervin, 61, was booked intojail Tuesday. She told Tallahassee PoliceDepartment officers her 86-year-oldmother, Gloria Bourgeois, hadn’t seen adoctor in 15 years despite having rot-ting flesh and numerous ulcers, includ-ing one the size of a basketball, courtdocuments said.

Ervin explained that she was the pri-

mary caretaker for hermother, but that Bour-geois refused to see adoctor due to her beliefs.

“We don’t believe inmedicine,” Ervin told an officer. “Our religionsays God will fix it.”

It wasn’t until Bour-geois started bleedingfrom her ulcers that Le-on County Emergency

Medical Services was called June 12.Paramedics found ulcers on the wom-an’s shoulders and lower back. Her skinwas discolored and muscle, fat and tis-sue were visible through wounds, ac-cording to court documents.

Bourgeois was confined to a chair.Investigators said the chair was covered in urine, feces, blood andbits of skin. She was taken to Tallahas-see Memorial HealthCare for treat-ment.

“It was readily apparent and evidentBourgeois needed, and had been need-ing, medicine, medical services, food,nutrition and adequate supervision,that a prudent person would consideressential for her well-being,” the reportsaid.

Ervin was charged with elder ne-glect June 15. Bourgeois died June 25.The State Attorney’s Office determinedBourgeois’ wounds resulted from Er-vin’s culpable negligence.

Daughter charged in mother’s neglect, deathSean RossmanDemocrat staff writer@seanrossman on Twitter

Marsha Ervin

Tallahassee Democrat 07/09/2015

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Most people in Talla-hassee did not know that arare Wright house existedjust outside the city limitsuntil June 2014 whenSpring House was put onThe National Trust forHistoric Preservation’slist of America’s 11 MostEndangered HistoricPlaces. The house, whichis on Okeeheepkee Road,also made the list of Flori-da’s Eleven Most Endan-gered Historic Sites inMay.

“Spring House is an in-spiring space to visit,whether you know any-thing about Wright’s workor not,” Spring House In-stitute board memberFrost Burke said. “Thegoal of the Spring HouseInstitute is to preserveSpring House not just as amuseum, but as a vibrantcommunity resource thatwill host classes, musicalevents, poetry readings,seminars and other cre-ative activities.”

All the National Trustattention helped attract1,500 paying Wright fansto Spring House, which isonly open to the publiconce a month, for $15 perhead. But the drive toraise enough money tofully renovate the homeand turn it into a public fa-cility is proving to be avery tough job.

“We need some big do-nors,” Mashburn said.“We are very thankful forall the pledges and dona-tions but we need a big do-nor.”

The first step is for thenonprofit Spring HouseInstitute to buy the prop-erty and the home fromthe Lewis family. Thehouse and land have beenvalued by two averagedappraisals to be worthnearly $500,000. The In-stitute raised $130,000 lastyear with hopes to reach$250,000 and qualify for amatching special catego-ry grant from the FloridaDepartment of State.

The fund-raising drivehit a snag when the start-ing date for the 2016 Flori-da Legislature waspushed forward to earlyJanuary. The deadline forthe matching grant sud-denly shifted from Octo-ber 2015 to June 2015.

“That gave us a monthand two weeks to raise therest of the money, fourmonths less at that timethan we were countingon,” Mashburn said.

The Spring House In-stitute did not make therushed deadline and willhave to wait until nextyear to start the match-ing-grant process overagain.

“We are not totally de-pendent on those stategrants, but they havelooked like the best op-tions for us,” Mashburnsaid.

In the meantime,Mashburn said she isgrateful for the steadystream of visitors, butthey are putting a strainon the 2,282-square-foothome. It needs repairs to

its roof, plumbing andwiring systems.

“Most of Frank LloydWright’s homes are high-maintenance homes,”Mashburn said.

“Wright has admirersall over the country andaround the world andmany plan their tripsaround locations ofWright-designed housesand other buildings,”Burke said. “Even withthe current limited hoursand little promotion, visi-tors come from acrossAmerica and from for-eign countries to visit thisrare and special place,demonstrating the greatpotential for bringingmoney from other placesinto the Tallahassee re-gion and boosting the lo-cal economy.”

Clifton and GeorgeLewis first met Wright inLakeland at FloridaSouthern College, whereWright-designed struc-tures dominate the cam-pus. It was 1950 andWright was on hand forthe dedication of his newAdministration Building.During a reception forWright, the Lewises got inthe long receiving line tomeet the great architectand decided to pitch theiridea for a new house.

“His wife (OlgivannaMilanov HinzenbergWright) was there, andshe was protecting him.She wouldn’t let anyoneshake hands with him,”Clifton said during an in-terview at Spring Housein 1998 when director KenBurns made a documen-tary about Wright. “So wegot in the back of the lineand waited our turn.”

When Clifton metWright she said: “Mr.Wright, we’re the Lewis-es, and we are from Talla-hassee. We have a lot ofchildren and not muchmoney, and we hope youwill do a house for us.”

It helped that the free-thinking, progressiveLewises were World Fed-eralists, a political organi-zation with an inclusiveglobal philosophy thatWright followed.

George, who workedfor his family’s bank, theLewis State Bank, finallybought five wooded acressouth of Lake Jacksonthat included a streamand a spring. They senttopographic maps andphotos off to Wright. Thehouse and the land cost$48,000.

The house was added tothe National Register ofHistoric Place in 1979.Members of the Lewisfamily lived there until2010.

The colorful and icono-clastic Clifton Lewis, whowas also one of the foun-ders of the LeMoyne Cen-ter for the Visual Arts,The Tallahassee Museumand a foot soldier in Talla-hassee’s civil rightsmovement of the early‘60s, died in February2014. She was 94.

“We still have the op-portunity for it to besaved for public use,”Mashburn said. “That’swhat our parents wanted.They wanted other peopleto have this amazing expe-rience - not as a museum -but as a place where youcan come and have yourgraduation party. Lateron, it will be a wonderfulplace for a honeymoon.And occasional weekendsand overnight visits forpeople. ... It’s just a won-derful place.”

To learn more, visitwww.preservespringhouse.org.

D.A. ROBIN/DEMOCRAT

This is the Spring House’s southeastern side. It is the only private home in Florida designed by vaunted architect Frank LloydWright. Nestled in a woody area on the outskirts of Tallahassee, Spring House is one of only two homes build in Wright’s podstyle. Spring House Institute hopes to preserve the home for future use.

D.A. ROBIN/DEMOCRAT

This long seated area in Spring House was designed for social gatherings and meetings, says Byrd Mashburn, who grew upthere. Her mother, Clifton Lewis, hired famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design this home, which is unique in Florida.

D.A. ROBIN/DEMOCRAT

This is a portion of the upstairs of Spring House. The Spring House Institute hopes to preservethe home on the outskirts of Tallahassee for future use.

D.A. ROBIN/DEMOCRAT

Guests can buy pieces of Ocala limestone blocks used to buildSpring House. Tours are available the second Sunday monthly.

Continued » 1A

Wright FRANK LLOYDWRIGHT AT AGLANCE» 1867: Born in Wisconsin.» 1889: Designs his home in

Oak Park, Ill., where hebuilt 25 houses.

» 1911: Builds his famedTaliesin home and studio inSpring Green, Wis.

» 1914: A Taliesin servantgoes on a murder spree andburns the building to theground. Wright survivesand quickly rebuilds.

» 1923: His Imperial Hotel isone of the few structuresleft standing after an earth-quake in Tokyo.

» 1934: Designs Fallingwaterin Bear Run, Pa.

» 1943: Ayn Rand publishes“The Fountainhead” with aleading character based onWright.

» 1954: Work on SpringHouse in Tallahassee iscompleted.

» 1956: Finishes plans for theGuggenheim Museum inNew York City.

» 1959: Dies in Arizona.