Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220252
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-8 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: MOUNT VERNON LENGTH: Medium
And it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to save the house, which was built for $7,000.
In 1963, the spare little house in then-rural Falls Church lay in the path of progress: Interstate 66. The home's owner and the National Trust for Historic Preservation teamed up to move the house, board by board, to a similarly wooded site several miles away, on the grounds of the Trust's Woodlawn Plantation.
That act of salvage could lead to the home's eventual deterioration.
The Pope-Leighey house, built in 1940 and named for its first and second owners, was rebuilt in 1964 on a seam of highly unstable clay. To make matters worse, fill dirt was used atop the clay seam.
"It's fair to say when the house was moved and reconstructed, we didn't know as much . . . as we do today," Pope-Leighey director Linda Cunningham Goldstein said.
Cracks more than an inch wide snake through the concrete floors. Smaller cracks are visible in the walls of one bedroom.
The National Trust has considered numerous ideas for saving the house a second time. Engineers and Trust officials have largely ruled out another move.
"Every time you rebuild something, you lose something," Goldstein said. "We have to think very carefully about it if we were to [construct] it a third time."
Instead, engineers likely will try to stabilize the foundation, perhaps using steel rods or plates. Goldstein said she expects a decision within a few weeks.
The project could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but there is no reliable estimate yet, Goldstein said. A fund-raising arm of the non-profit Trust will make a public appeal for the house, Goldstein said.
The brick, cypress and glass house was built for Loren B. Pope, a young Washington newspaperman who told Wright he made $50 a week.
"There are certain things a man wants during life, and, of life. Material things and things of the spirit. The writer has one fervent wish that includes both. It is for a house created by you," Pope wrote in August 1939.
Two weeks later, Wright replied: "Of course I am ready to give you a house."
Wright, credited with remaking 20th century American architecture, was already famous and highly controversial when Pope made his appeal. Pope's infatuation with the modern architect was not shared by Washington banks, which refused to lend Pope money to build the house.
In the end, the Washington Star, where Pope worked as an editor, lent him the money to build the house. He lived there six years.
Pope, who is now 80 and runs a research service for prospective college students, is aiding fund-raising efforts by appearing in a documentary filmed at the house this spring.
by CNB