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The Springfield News-Sun is committed to covering tourism in Clark County, including recent stories on the Heritage Center levy and the increase in local overnight hotel stays this year.
By the numbers
$6 million: Amount of money spent to renovate the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Westcott House, which opened in 2005.
85,000: The total number of visitors to the Westcott House since it opened.
$60,000: Amount of an anonymous donation provided to the Westcott House to add more period-specific furniture.
The 107-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Westcott House museum in Springfield has had about 85,000 visitors in its first decade since undergoing about $6 million in renovations.
As it enters its second decade, the museum at 85 S. Greenmount Ave. — one of 11 Wright houses in Ohio and 350 remaining in the world — will be adding more furniture next year and is considering future expansion.
The Westcott House, the only prairie-style home in Ohio, re-opened to the public on Oct. 15, 2005. At the time, however, the Westcott Foundation didn’t know what to expect, said Executive Director Marta Wojcik, who began as curator that year.
In 2006, the museum saw more than 11,000 people, Wojcik said. Since that time, it has held steady at about 7,000 per year, with visitors coming from across the country. It’s the top-rated attraction in Springfield, according to TripAdvisor, she added.
“We are really blessed with consistent visitorship,” Wojcik said. “It’s very important for operations that we have a steady, earned income. It’s just amazing. … After 10 years, we have a track record of being a really solid cultural tourism destination for Springfield.”
The Westcott House is the best example of Wright’s work in Ohio, and one of the best of this prairie house period, said Richard Guy Wilson, an architectural history professor at the University of Virginia.
“The restoration of the house is top notch and should serve as an inspiration to historic house museums across the country,” Wilson said in an e-mail.
The house was built in 1908 by car mogul Burton J. Westcott, who lived there until his death in 1926. It had several owners over the years and was rapidly deteriorating, including being converted into an apartment complex before it was purchased by the Chicago-based Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy for $300,000 in 2000.
A local group eventually created a non-profit organization to raise money to purchase the home and renovate it.
The community’s excitement for the museum was amazing from the beginning, Wojcik said. The organization has about 90 volunteers, including docents, store staff and researchers.
“With all the tours going through, it would be impossible for the (paid) staff to run,” Wojcik said. “We have some really great people.”
It was a tragedy to have that kind of architectural heritage in the shape it was in, said Mayor Warren Copeland. While other tourist venues may attract more people, in terms of quality of experience, the Westcott House is one of the top attractions in Springfield — for both residents and non-residents who love architecture, he added.
“For them, this is a really neat experience and puts Springfield on the map for people who know who Frank Lloyd Wright is,” Copeland said. “That’s more important than the numbers.”
The Westcott House is one of the community’s “greatest tourism assets,” said Chris Schutte, Director of the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.
While the museum has an average of about 8,500 visitors per year, it’s bringing a regional and national audience, Schutte said. The guest register shows people are traveling thousands of miles to visit the home, he added.
Springfield’s connection to Frank Lloyd Wright “denotes architectural heritage and design excellence,” he said.
“They’re typically an audience that’s spending the night in Springfield and being exposed to other tourism destinations,” Schutte said. “Bringing in people from across the country is an important distinction.”
A few years ago, the Clark County Preservation Alliance and the Westcott Foundation combined to create the Westcott Center for Art + Design, which hosts several events at both the museum and throughout the community. The organization has about 300 members, Wojcik said, including many from Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati.
In 2014, the award-winning Solar House created by Norwich University was installed behind the Westcott House. It currently serves as an educational space for the Wright site.
Earlier this year, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Westcott a $75,000 Our Town grant to develop an architectural design, programming and a business plan for the physical Westcott Center. For the past five years, Westcott has received the Creative Economy Grant from the Ohio Arts Council, which will also be used for the project.
Award-winning architect Peter Bohlin, who designed the Apple Store in New York City, will serve as the primary designer for the project.
The goal is to increase programming space and allow for a 1920 Westcott Car, which is currently in storage, to be permanently displayed in the garage. The space is currently being used as a museum store and welcome center.
The new physical space would also have classrooms, Wojcik said. Bohlin’s design will be sensitive to the historic home, she added.
“It would be ideal to interpret the garage as part of the house,” Wojcik said, “but we don’t have space for that.”
There’s no timetable for the expansion, Wojcik said, which could require a significant fundraising effort.
“We want to make sure that we take good care of this place,” Wojcik said. “We don’t want to overextend.”
During the restoration period, the Westcott research committee reached out to find any clues it could about furniture inside the house. While some tables, chairs and cabinets have been added, visitors often wish to see more furniture, Wojcik said.
The committee has been working to add more furniture to the home, Wojcik said, thanks to an anonymous donor who provided about $60,000 for the project. Several new items will be added, including a reproduced Tiffany lamp, rugs and Rookwood pottery.
“It will make it feel more like a home,” Wojcik said.
The non-profit organization will host a gala at 6 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Clark State Community College Hollenbeck Bayley Creative Arts and Conference Center to celebrate 10 years of community engagement. Bohlin will be the guest of honor. For more information, log on to westcotthouse.org.
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