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Property Record

3335 S SHORE DR

Historic Name:
Fred B. Jones Estate (Penwern)-Gatehouse
Other Name:
Penwern
Reference Number:
9806

Property Location

Location (Address)
3335 S SHORE DR
County
Walworth
City/Village
Township
Delavan
Unincorporated community
Town
2
Range
16
Direction
E
Section
33
Quarter Section
Quarter Quarter Section

Property Features

Year Built
1903
Additions
Survey Date
1974
Historic Use
Architectural Style
Structural System
Wall Material
Board and Batten
Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright
Other Buildings On Site
Demolished
No
Demolished Date
Additional Comments
A 'site file' exists for this property named 'Fred B. Jones Estate (Penwern)'. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. GOTHIC WINDOWS IN FRONT DORMERS. Photo code #1 is: NR 151. J photo roll (#2 & 3) refers to J.A. Sewell negatives. See also Jeff Dean's personal file for photo 10/72b. Penwern Estate of 1900-03 includes a house, a boathouse, a stable, and a gate lodge, all designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Gate lodge - 1903, boathouse - 1900, house - 1901, stable - 1903. Penwern has several Welsh meanings, but is possibly tied into the name of Wright’s maternal grandmother’s ancestral home in Wales, a cottage with a similar name. Penwern was one of Wright’s first projects on Delavan Lake. As usual, Wright took full advantage of the natural setting. The living room opens onto a broad porch, across the full length of the house’s main block, offering a panoramic lake view. Long side-gabled roofs with wide eaves seem to make the two-story house hug the ground. The horizontal siding and the extremely broad semi-elliptical arches at the porch entry and the porte-cochère underscore the low-slung effect. Uncoursed rubble in the porch piers and walls visually ties the house to the earth. The porte-cochère, with a covered walkway overhead, links the main block to an annex, in which a second-story tower thrusts through the roofline like an arrow. Fred Jones, a wealthy Chicago businessman and a bachelor, commissioned Penwern to accommodate his lavish summer parties. Besides the spacious living room, with its high, beamed ceiling and its broad-arched brick fireplace (echoing the arches outside), the first floor also featured billiards and dining rooms. Partygoers could also use the porch or head upstairs to an indoor balcony overlooking the living and dining rooms. For late-night poker games, the men retreated to the tower annex. Five upstairs bedrooms accommodated overnight guests. The estate originally included a stables a boathouse, which fell victim to arson in 1978 but was rebuilt c. 2002 according to Wright's original plans; and a substantial gatehouse, which housed Jones’s caretaker and more guests. Visible from the street, the gate lodge features two dormers, each embracing pairs of pointed windows. A side-gabled porte cochère shelters the entrance to the estate and connects this gatehouse to a tower that stored water for an attached greenhouse, which no longer stands.
Bibliographic References
Collection #M 0961 OMB 0124 OM 0499 BV 3704-BV 3716 "Adams & Westlake (Adlake) Collection, ca. 1872-ca. 1959" Indiana Historical Society. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript.

National And State Register Of Historic Places Listings

National/State Register Listing Name
Jones, Fred B., Estate
National Register Listing Date
Dec 27, 1974
State Register Listing Date
Jan 01, 1989
Contributing
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Attribution

For a credit line: Wisconsin Historical Society, Creator, Title, Unique Identifier. 

The Unique Identifier can be found at the top or bottom of the page for each item. The name of a downloaded file is NOT the unique identifier.

For bibliographic citations please consult the UW-Madison Libraries Citation Research Guide to ensure compliance with appropriate style guidelines.

 

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Press Book
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Penwern

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Penwern

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

A gloriously illustrated look back to the glory days of gracious living and entertaining on the lake through a classic work by one of America’s greatest architectural minds.

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Postcards
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circa 1910-1919

View down side of road towards Penwern Lodge on the other side of the road. There is a stone wall in front of the lodge, and a horse-drawn wagon near the entrance. Caption reads: "Penwern Lodge, De...

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