<b>By DEBORAH BEHRENDS<br>
Illinois Correspondent</b></p><p>

HAMPSHIRE, Ill. — Bulldozing the house would have been easier, but the Muirhead family understood the home’s historical and architectural significance and renovated it.<br>
Today, Sarah (Muirhead) and Mike Petersdorf open their home to guests of the Muirhead Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast. Sarah is the granddaughter of the original owners, Robert and Elizabeth Muirhead, and remembers visiting her grandparents in the home.
Among the first settlers in Kane County, the Muirheads established their farmstead on the home’s current site in 1860. By the late 1940s, Robert and Elizabeth had outgrown the original farmhouse, and wanted something better suited for their growing family of five children.<br>

According to Petersdorf, that led Robert to pile the kids in the car one Sunday and head to Spring Green, Wis., to Taliesin, the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.<br>

“At that time, Taliesin wasn’t open to the public. He just walked in and started looking around. Finally he was approached by Wright’s secretary, Eugene Masselink, who asked what he wanted. He said he wanted to meet Wright,” Petersdorf said.<br>

“Masselink asked him to wait and within 15 minutes, Wright came to meet him.”<br>

From that first meeting, Wright sent Muirhead home to write a letter detailing what he wanted in the house and how he intended to use it. The result was a six-page, handwritten letter, a copy of which can be seen at the farmhouse today.<br>

Before drawing his plans, Wright visited the farm because he believed the house should feel like a natural part of its environment. Petersdorf said Wright was known for his ability to site a building on the property.<br>

Construction began in 1951 and was largely finished by 1952 with Robert serving as general contractor, doing much of the finishing work himself. The result, at about double the $25,000 budget Muirhead gave Wright, was a Usonian-style home.<br>

The word Usonia is an abbreviation for United States of North America. Wright aspired to create a democratic, distinctly American style that was affordable for the “common people.”<br>

Wright’s Usonian homes were small, one-story structures set on concrete slabs with piping for radiant heat beneath. The kitchens were incorporated into the living areas. Open carports took the place of garages.<br>

The Muirhead farmhouse is anything but small. Wright believed a house should reflect the individual requirements of its occupants and several changes were made to the original floor plan. For example, Petersdorf said the original plans called for the wing containing the indoor workshop, kitchen and dining room to be separated from the family wing containing the living room and bedrooms by about 100 feet.<br>

Elizabeth didn’t find that arrangement practical. Although she liked the idea of separating the two wings, she didn’t want the children to have to go in and out of the buildings.<br>

Petersdorf said Wright cut the floor plan in half, shortened the distance between the two wings and enclosed the walkway.
Petersdorf said the rooms in the home are a classic example of what Wright called “compression and release.”<br>

In a narrow hallway or entering a room, a visitor may feel a bit claustrophobic with the low ceilings.<br>

Once inside the room, the ceiling is higher and many rooms have glass walls, bringing the outdoors in.<br>

Some of the furniture in the home was built from Wright’s designs. “Robert had the plans for the furniture but he probably just didn’t have the time to build it,” Petersdorf said.<br>

The furniture continues Wright’s themes of clean lines built with natural woods.<br>

“In reading about Wright, I’ve found that he often became frustrated when people would bring their own furniture into the new home he had designed and hang their stuff on the walls. He believed the architecture was the art,” Petersdorf said.
When the family decided to renovate the home, Petersdorf said extensive damage already had occurred.<br>

“There was significant water damage, the floors had sunk several inches and there was a lot of work to be done.”<br>

He started driving from the home he and Sarah shared with their two sons in Minnesota to add his assistance to the renovation effort.<br>

They finally decided to take over the home and open it to the public as a bed and breakfast. Petersdorf spends his days maintaining the home and renovating the large barns on the property, as well as serving as tour guide and full-time host. Sarah works for a publishing firm in Carol Stream.<br>

While the Petersdorf’s two sons probably don’t appreciate the historical significance of their home now, Petersdorf said their 16-year-old son’s friends always ask for a tour when they first visit.
The family is pleased to note that encroaching residential development won’t get too close. The Kane County Forest Preserve District owns about 800 acres of land that is being redeveloped with native prairie wildflowers and grasses and a seven-mile trail look for use by walkers, bicyclists and horse enthusiasts.<br>

The Petersdorfs don’t advertise their bed and breakfast other than through their own website - www.muirheadfarmhouse.com - or through bed and breakfast associations to which they belong. They can be reached by phone at 847-464-5224.