A Lovely, Colorful Time Capsule in Ashton, Illinois
Many of the homes I list for sale have an architect’s name associated with them, and often it’s somebody who’s pretty well-known in the area: Dennis Blair, Don Erickson, Keck & Keck, just to name a few. Sometimes a home was designed by an architectural designer who wasn’t as well-known, and sometimes I’m never able to find out the name of the architect who designed a house.
But it isn’t often that a home I list for sale was designed by the owner, who was neither an architect or an architectural designer.
706 N. 4th Street in Ashton, Illinois, however, is one such home.
Built in 1954, the Griffith house was designed by its owner, Stanwood Griffith, for himself, his wife Frances, and their children. If you happen to drive past the house and notice that there’s a park down the street called Griffith Park, you might wonder what the relationship is between the two.
As it turns out, the Griffiths were one of the founding families of Ashton, Illinois, going back generations.
“Stan wasn’t born in Ashton,” says Alan, the Griffiths’ older son. “but he lived there his whole life, except for a short time when he and our Mom lived in Denver after they got married.”
Stan studied building design & architecture at the Colorado School of Mines. He was an admirer of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was largely his admiration for Wright’s work that led him to design the home at 706 N 4th street the way he did.
When you first arrive onto the property, you’re met by the carport, jutting out from the front of the house, and incorporating a storage area made of Chicago common brick, at the far end, away from the house. Chicago common brick was a favorite of Wright’s that he used in many of his projects.
The carport also acts as a shelter from the elements, for guests going to the front door. Walk inside, and the home’s modernist features are clearly apparent, with natural stone floors in the entryway, and a low, curved brick planter just inside the entry, opposite a massive brick wall with radius corners. These curves in the brick features help soften them, in juxtaposition against the rectilinear features of most of the rest of the house.
Three steps up straight ahead would lead into the kitchen and dining area, but take the three steps to the right, past the planter, and you’ll find yourself in the spacious living room.
At the front corner, built-in shelving and storage units section off the southeast corner of the room, creating an area that Stan originally used as his home office.
“Stan owned a number of businesses in the area over the years,” says Mark, the Griffiths’ younger son. “Most of them were related to lumber & building supplies, grain storage and transportation. His last venture was Consol Builders, which owned a Wick Buildings franchise. He had a very successful career with them, winning the Building of the Year award once, and the Ashton Business of the Year once as well.”
Past the “office triangle” is the main part of the living room, where an angled sofa, built just for the space, runs along the front of the office area and then along the east wall all the way to the window line at the north side of the room.
That window line offers nearly unobstructed views across what is now hundreds of acres of farmland, providing views for miles.
“Our mother was a talented pianist and organist, accompanying many musical groups while we were in school,” says Alan. “She was also an organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Rochelle for 37 years. The house had both an organ and a grand piano so she could practice at home.”
One of the remarkable things about the house is how much storage Stan worked into just about every part of the house. The north wall here, and continuing into the dining area, is all glass, except for the bottom part, which is loaded up with cabinets that have sliding doors and integrated HVAC registers.
“There are a few things in this house that weren’t very common in the early 1950s,” says Janet, Alan’s wife. “One is that he built the house with central heat and air conditioning. Another is that the curtains that cover the windows in the living and dining rooms were motorized. The motor doesn’t work anymore, unfortunately, but I was always amazed by that.”
Stan and Frances (or Fran, as the family called her) met at a train wreck – literally – outside of nearby Franklin Grove while they were both still in high school in the area.
“He went to Ashton schools,” says Mark. “Fran lived on a farm between Franklin Grove and Nachusa, and went to country school and Franklin Grove High School. They started dating in high school and married after Stan’s military service and while they were in college.”
Turn towards the dining area and you can really appreciate the open plan design of the main part of the house. The kitchen rests right in between the front entry and the dining area, and the laundry area is tucked away inside that curved brick wall, behind the kitchen. This is yet again a feature that wasn’t exactly commonplace at the time: Although the house is a walkout ranch, Stan put the laundry on the main level, so that all of the day-to-day needs of the house are met without having to go downstairs.
The kitchen is rich with really wonderful modernist details, such as the stack of floating bookshelves integrated into the outside of one of the kitchen walls, facing the living room (and a smaller set inside the kitchen itself); The bar counter area between the kitchen & dining area (what you might call a breakfast bar today); The built-in stainless steel oven and linear 4-burner cooktop, with wall-mounted pushbutton control panels; The very era-appropriate pendant lights; And of course the fantastic accordion screen that can be pulled out to close off the kitchen on the dining room side.
And, again, more storage: Under a bench seat along the cutout into the laundry area, and in the bumped-out area behind that bench seat. So much great storage!
“Fran always had an elaborate Christmas dinner for both sets of parents, the widowed aunt, and assorted friends who lacked extended family to celebrate with,” adds Janet. “The custom-made leaf that extended the dining room table is still in the coat closet. I kept one of the plates always used for the dinner, because I couldn’t let it go; too many memories.”
The kitchen floor is vinyl, but the floor on most of the main level is cork, and cabinetry and much of the other doors and panels in the house seem to be birch, although Alan and Mark aren’t sure about that.
In the Primary bedroom, you’ll find more cork floors, more wood paneling, and more built-ins. There’s a desk, dresser drawers under the windows (again, with integrated HVAC registers) and cabinets. Plus another cabinet with angled-front drawers that was built for the space and will stay with the house (like the sofa & tables in the living room).
And the Primary bedroom closets are plywood-fronted built-in units that become the wall of the bedroom when the doors are closed.
Off to one side of the Primary bedroom is another smaller room that was used as a nursery for Mark when the family first moved into the house. Today, if not used as a nursery, this space would make for a cozy home office or a great additional (walk-in) closet, thanks to another whole wall of built-ins. And there’s even another closet in this space that opens to the bathroom behind it.
The bathrooms are a whole other reason to celebrate, with lovely materials and fixtures that are nearly all original. The Primary bath has dual Crane sinks, cabinets, upper cabinets with sliding pegboard fronts, more angled-front drawers, glass block windows and these fantastic plastic wall tiles (that may have been made by Poly-Tiles but, again, nobody is too sure).
Down the hall is the “twin bedroom” that Stan designed to be shared by their two boys as they got older. As with the Primary bedroom, the back wall features desk areas, angled-front drawers and storage cubbies.
Mark thinks that the closets in this room – alternately painted blue and yellow – may have been designed to be moved around the room so that the room could be divided in half physically (without having to resort to the Brady Bunch’s masking tape method).
Clearly, Stan planned this space with some forethought, as each half of the bedroom has its own door, so the room could easily be physically divided and each half still function as its own space (provided some of the closets are moved to the other side).
A second bathroom sits across the hall from the twin bedroom, and here you’ll find another fantastic 1950s sink set in an angled-front cabinet, more plastic wall tiles (this time in yellow, and wonderful corrugated plastic (or maybe fiberglass) colored panels that separate the sink & vanity from the tub & shower. It really is a feast of mid-century design elements all in one space…and so lovingly preserved over the years!
Downstairs in the walkout level, there’s a large rec-room, another large unfinished area (where the two original toilets are stored, in case somebody wants to re-use them in the bathrooms upstairs), and several other rooms plus a “split bathroom” situation: One powder room with a sink & toilet, and another with a sink and tub / shower.
A small kitchenette down here is original to the house – a place where Fran could do her home canning and keep the heat out of the main kitchen upstairs – and is yet another feature of the Griffith house that wasn’t very common for that time period.
“Stan had a model railroad set up in one of the basement spaces,” says Mark, “as well as a darkroom in one of the smaller spaces. What is now two rooms at the west end of the basement was a car shop when the house was first built, with a double door to the outside. Our father built the first cars of his 1/3 scale trolley line there. The trolley eventually moved to a rural location, and Stan sold it to a friend before his death.”
Outside the walkout level (which has two doors leading outside) is a large patio, and then a partial line of trees separating the property from the farmland to the north.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this story, down the street you’ll find yourself at Griffith Park. So what’s the connection?
“Stan’s grandparents, JC and Dora Griffith, donated what is now Griffith Park to the city,” says Mark. “It’s a former quarry, and some of its limestone was used for the buildings of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Alan and I remember the park being a good place to play army or cowboys and Indians with our friends.”
While Ashton is a pretty small town – its population has consistently been right around 1,000 people for decades – it’s just north of I-88, putting it just a couple hours west of Chicago, an hour and a half east of Davenport, Iowa and a 45 minute drive from Rockford. As such, it would make for a great weekend getaway for somebody in any of those cities, or as a lovely primary residence for somebody who’s in the area, or just wants a nearly untouched and very well-designed MCM home in a quiet area.
Although both Stan and Fran have passed away, Alan, Janet and Mark have many fond memories of years spent here. The family are now selling the house as part of Fran’s estate.
You can see complete listing details here.
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