The Warren F. Plunkett home is the right place and the Wright place.

It was home to Austin jeweler S. P.

"Pearl" Elam and then the Plunkett family.

The home is a classic, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and nestled in a southwest Austin neighborhood, full of history.

Recently, Dianne Plunkett Latham of Edina, daughter of the home's owner, hosted a group of Daughters of the American Revolution members. The delegation included members of Austin's Red Cedar chapter as well as members from Latham's own Monument chapter in Edina.

Not since a home tour sponsored by the Association of American University Women in 1969 has any member of the public been afforded a glimpse inside the home at 309 21st St. SW.

S. P. "Pearl" Elam, who operated a jewelry store at 310 N. Main St. from 1933 until his retirement in 1974, commissioned the world-famous architect to design him a home in Austin's Streverling Addition in 1950.

The home, which took two years to build, was constructed with five bedrooms, six bathrooms, two kitchens, a recreation room, workshop and photography darkroom.

The floor-to ceiling fireplace in the front living room is one of three in the home. There is also a dining area that seats 10 people. With additional seating up to 24 people can be accommodated.

Seven rooms, including maid's quarters, are in the lower level and 13 are rooms upstairs.

Warren F. Plunkett acquired the Wright-designed home for $10,000 and his own home in a trade after it had been on the market for two years with no other offers, Latham said.

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most influential and imaginative architects. He created a striking variety of architectural forms in nearly seven decades of work (1867-1959). His works ranged from buildings rooted in the mid-1800s to ultra-modern homes and office facilities.

He once designed a skyscraper 1 mile high.

Before he died in 1959, he designed two of his most famous works: the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Marin County Civic Center in San Francisco, Calif.

Wright coined the word "organic" to describe his architecture.

"Let your home grow easily from its site and shape it to sympathize with its surroundings if nature is manifest there and if not try and be as quiet, substantial and organic as she would have been had she had the chance," is how Wright described home architecture.

Austin house one of the largest of its kind

The Plunkett house is one of the largest Usonian-themed Wright homes surpassed only by the Johnson "Wingspread" house in Wing Point, Wis.

"Wright was not always practical. He designed for beauty," Latham explained to DAR recently.

Entrance to the home is on the lower level and guests must climb a winding stairway to the upper level's dining area and front living room.

A floor-to-ceiling fireplace in the front living room's heat is literally sucked out of the room and down the chimney-like staircase to the lower level.

"That's why Wright designed the prow of a ship atop the staircase with hidden windows that could be raised to prevent the draft from the fireplace," she said. "So in that respect he was both practical and interested in the beautiful. Just look at the cypress wood."

The home accommodated Elam's family of five children very well. However, the Elam dream home quickly evaporated.

"The Elam family only lived in the house for seven years before moving," Latham said.

She pointed out an alcove in the front living room, where Wright intended the family Christmas tree to nicely fit each holiday season.

"Elam however put an organ in this spot," she said. "and it became one of only three pieces of furniture which were sold with the home to the Plunketts."

Wright home becomes the Plunketts'

Warren F. Plunkett's first wife, Eleanor Lampert, and his mother, Lillian Plunkett, were killed in a motor vehicle accident in 1963.

The judge later remarried a widow, Audrey Larson in 1964, and together the two marriages produced -- with their blended families -- eight children who called the Wright house their home in their lifetimes.

Warren's son by his first marriage, Peter, an Austin attorney, remembers growing up in the historic home.

"I have many fond memories of living in the house," he said. "The house is so big that even though there were at times eight kids living in it, you could still find a room to play in on your own."

Family photos line the walls of the 148-foot-long hallway in the home. The Plunkett family has produced 22 attorneys through its four generations in Minnesota.

Despite the obvious elegance of the home, a visitor also feels "comfortable" walking the hallways, visiting rooms and prowling here and there to touch the wood and stone. And, why not? Children once frolicked here, racing cars and trains, climbing stairs and walls and performing classical music or exploring the "hidden room."

It's a little known fact, Wright, who historians say never visited the Austin house, created home designs for a higher being.

"Frank Lloyd Wright always built homes that were located on the side of a hill and not truly atop a hill. It is said he believed the top of a hill was spiritual," Latham said.

Latham and her husband, Dan, are patent attorneys in the Twin Cities. The pair enjoy visiting the Upper Midwest to tour other Wright-designed homes.

But always and forever, the one she and other family members call "home" remains the favorite.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com