Architecture and music fans gathered on Sunday afternoon at a farmstead along Rohrsen Road in Hampshire in order to tour a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed farmhouse and raise money for the Central Community Unit School District 301 performing arts program.
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The Muirhead farmhouse is home to Mike and Sarah Petersdorf and their sons Aaron, 26, and Alec, 18. Both Aaron and Alec have played the saxophone in the Central High School band. While Alec is currently a junior at Central High, Aaron recently graduated from Bradley University in Peoria with a degree in mechanical engineering.
The fundraiser held by the non-profit D301 Performing Arts Music Boosters featured tours of the farmhouse, a bake sale, and outdoor performances on the farmhouse patio by the District 301 junior high and high school jazz bands along with jazz vocals.
“We are so grateful to the Petersdorf family for opening their home to raise money for the music students,” said Mary Kay Albamonte, Music Boosters president.
Tickets to tour the farmhouse cost $25 each.
“We raised $3,000 in pre-sales,” said Janet Holmgren, co-chairperson of the event. “Many others paid when they came here. Our big push in Music Boosters now is to refurbish the marching band uniforms and support our annual scholarships and band camps.”
The Muirhead family were among the first settlers of Kane County. They established the farmstead at its current site in 1860.
By the late 1940s, when Robert and Elizabeth Muirhead, Sarah’s grandparents, wanted to replace the original two-story, white clapboard farmhouse on the property, they drove to Taliesen in Spring Green, Wisconsin, so they could discuss their ideas with Wright.
“My grandparents wanted a larger home for their family of five children,” said Sarah. “They met with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1948 and later drafted a six-page letter of what they wanted. The farmhouse was completed in 1953.”
The 3,200 square foot, single-story, Usonian farmhouse designed by Wright has two wings connected by a 55-foot enclosed walkway. It was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The home’s exterior of brick and cypress wood spans nearly 180 feet. The interior has numerous built-ins, fireplaces and window walls that usher in light and offer panoramic views.
While Lamp Inc., Elgin, helped with the construction, Robert Muirhead acted as his own general contractor. He wired the house, poured concrete floors, built cabinets and installed most of the windows.
The kitchen and dining room, which were used by both the family and the farmhands, were kept separate from the living quarters. Wright designed varying ceiling heights for the different rooms.
“My grandparents liked to show movies,” said Sarah. “Our house is the only Wright home with a pull-down movie screen in the family room.”
The farmhouse underwent renovation work that was completed in 2005.
The 757 acres of farmland surrounding the farmhouse was purchased by the Kane County Forest Preserve District. Known as Muirhead Springs Preserve, it is once again a tallgrass prairie with a 4-mile, multipurpose limestone trail.
Plato Center resident Tricia Arnold was one of the many visitors to the farmhouse this weekend. She said her son, Jeremiah, 7, is a first grade student at Howard B. Thomas Grade School in Burlington.
Tricia once worked as a docent at the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park.
“Wright’s home and studio are where he did experimentation with space,” Tricia said. “His house is where it all started.”
Tricia has toured other buildings designed by Wright such as Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, both in Pennsylvania; Taliesen in Wisconsin and Taliesen West in Arizona. This weekend marked the first time she visited the Muirhead farmhouse.
The farmhouse is available for guided tours by appointment year round.
For information, call 847-464-5224 or go to www.muirheadfarmhouse.com.
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Denise Moran is a freelance reporter.