Wharton Esherick's Handmade House

Next stop on our list was the Wharton Esherick house in Paoli Pennsylvania.  In many ways Esherick impressed me even more than Philip Johnson... Esherick had almost no money so he hand-built his house and everything in it, whereas Johnson had tens of millions of dollars at his disposal (from inherited Alcoa stock) to get his designs built.

There wasn't a tour going the day we were driving through but Laura at the museum told us to stop by and she'd take us around.  It was a very cool private tour.  There's not a straight line in the place... and if you've ever built anything you'll know that's actually pretty hard to do.

I love the above shot... the curved stone gable and the bent wood walls with the colored windows are fantastic.  Almost looks like a toy house.  Those two big doors go into his studio.

That's his woodshed... lots of amazing material in there that he didn't quite have enough time to use.

The posts on the above deck aren't even straight, and the deck itself is off the kitchen which sports amazing handmade cabinets, wood counter tops and a handmade copper sink.  I wish I could have taken a shot of the kitchen floor - a sculpted mosaic made from scrap walnut and apple wood.

I love the crazy little details... like the blue window.  Why have it any old dull color when it could be blue??  And I don't know what this little statue is supposed to be but for some reason I like it...

We couldn't take pictures inside but we could touch and handle anything made of wood.  His work is incredible... it's all signed and dated, and just about everything is simply finished with linseed oil.  Everything is hand sculpted, from tables to chairs to cutting boards to built-in furniture and railings.  He  even built a mortise and tenoned spiral staircase where the treads fit into an oak trunk.  Crazy stuff.

Check out the museum website here:
http://www.whartonesherickmuseum.org/studio.html

We're in Donegal PA for the night and it's damned cold here.  In the morning we're heading off to see Kentuck Knob, another Frank Lloyd Wright design also known as the Hagan House.  Can't wait!