Machines in the woods

Monona hosts a prized collection of modernist International Style homes

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The banner for the 1937 ad from Brunsell Brothers builders was designed for pocketbook appeal: “Here is your low cost home.”

Then came the selling points:

“THE LAST WORD… in design...in construction...in equipment.”

“It’s in Frost Woods — Madison’s most congenial community…”

“It’s got everything — from mineral wool insulation in the room and complete winter air conditioning with filters, fan, humidifier and oil burner to hardware and lighting fixtures.”

The cost? $4,185. The designer: Beatty and Strang Architects.

Hamilton Beatty and Allen Strang joined forces in 1935, early in their respective careers. Their partnership was relatively short, but productive. Over the next six years they designed some 50 International Style homes in the Madison area; as a result, says Jim Draeger of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison is home to one of the highest concentrations of International Style homes anywhere in the country.

A large cluster of these homes is found in Monona’s Frost Woods neighborhood near Lake Monona. Those who bike the lake loop have likely whizzed by the structures numerous times. Distinguished by their flat roofs, corner windows and strong lines, several of these cutting-edge domiciles were featured in Architectural Record, a monthly magazine that highlights important design and architecture. One such article, “Four Houses in Frost Woods,” was published in May 1937.

C.W. Thomas, an English professor at UW-Madison, and his wife Edna, commissioned the first International Style home built in Monona at 5903 Winnequah Road. Beatty, who had not yet teamed up with Strang, designed the home, completed in 1931.

The commission was eased through a connection: Beatty’s father, Arthur Beatty, was a colleague of Thomas’ in the English department.

Draeger, who lives in an International Style house on Winnequah, just down the street, says Thomas went on to recruit other humanities scholars to the nascent Monona neighborhood.

“If you were in liberal arts, you built in Monona,” says Draeger. Those in the sciences, he adds, tended to head west to Shorewood Hills.

Beatty and Strang met as undergraduates at UW-Madison in 1925. Strang was studying engineering but transferred to the University of Pennsylvania to study architecture. Beatty followed his father’s wish that he study English. But after graduating in 1928 Beatty enrolled at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. In 1929 he worked for the modernist architect Le Corbusier who was fashioning his own vision for affordable urban housing. Beatty and his wife, Gwenydd, returned to Madison in the early 1930s; Strang followed a few years later and the two men opened an office on State Street.

Their niche was small, affordable homes. “This was in the midst of the Depression,” says Draeger. The design was modern. “It’s the architecture of the machine age,” he adds.

Purity of form was an important tenet — “The form itself can be beautiful, stripped of any ornamentation” — as was the application of science to architecture. “They believed that pitched roofs were unnecessary because they developed better technology,” says Draeger. “It was considered a needless expense to have a pitched roof.”

This progressive outlook and forward thinking attracted homeowners like C.W. and Edna Thomas. “My husband was interested in new ideas and was interested in having a house built by someone with new ideas,” Edna told Isthmus in 1992.

Want to see some of these fine specimens up close? Follow this short walking tour, designed by Draeger, of four homes; it’s no more than three blocks in radius.

We start at Draeger’s own home at 6106 Winnequah Road (historical name: Marsha Heath House). Set back from the street, the home, which was built in 1936, sits majestically among tall trees, green grass and bushes. The brown wood siding was meant to blend into the woods, says Draeger. But the architects also aimed for a “conscious juxtaposition” of rustic materials — including wood and stone — and severe design. “A machine-in-the-woods aesthetic,” says Draeger. “They were going for the contrast. The houses were meant to jump out of landscapes.”

We leave Draeger’s house and take a right. There are no sidewalks in this part of town, so beware of car and bike traffic. Pass Greenwood Street and Frost Woods Road. Turn right at the next intersection; 809 Owen Road will be on your left.

The Edward and Irene Thomas House, named after its first owner, Edward Thomas (no relation to C.W. or Edna), a manager for the University Club, was built in 1935. It’s a one-story home featuring a creamy brick exterior and flat roof, as well as corner windows and two decorative cornice bands. This was one of the smallest of the homes built by Beatty and Strang.

Walk back toward Winnequah and turn left. The next stop is 6008 Winnequah. The Paul Fulcher House, built in 1935, is named for its first owner, who, like C.W. Thomas, was a professor in the UW-Madison English department. When featured in the March 1937 issue of Architectural Record, the magazine noted the home’s brick exterior, “Fenestra steel casement” windows, and built-in features including a buffet and bookcases in the living room and “filing cases” in the study. At about 2,500 square feet, it’s one of the larger of the original International Style homes. The attached garage, a novelty at the time, is typical of the style, says Draeger.

The last stop is 5903 Winnequah Road, the C.W. Thomas House. The stucco home sits on the shore of Lake Monona; a charming circular patio with iron pipe railing is in the back. “The front door is the backside when you are lake property,” says Draeger. An addition was put in over the garage to accommodate the growing Thomas family. Son Bill, who returned to live in the house after his mother, Edna, passed away, was home when we stopped by and graciously offered a brief inside tour of the home. The original built-in bookcases in the living room remain, as does the fireplace.

Draeger says the homes were all built with fireplaces, another contrast with the stark style of the homes. “There was an association of fireplace with family; of home and hearth. The family gathers around the fireplace.”