SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE
SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE offers personal tours of the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed private residence built in Florida.
Thank you for your essential support of this historic preservation project. ~ Light and peace
*NEW PHOTOS UNDER BIG PROJECTS
To read the article about Lewis Spring House, scroll down on: wrightinracine.com
to Wright's https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/wrights-ship-in-the-woods/
Thank you for your essential support of this historic preservation project. ~ Light and peace
*NEW PHOTOS UNDER BIG PROJECTS
To read the article about Lewis Spring House, scroll down on: wrightinracine.com
to Wright's https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/2022/03/09/wrights-ship-in-the-woods/
See "Big Projects" page.
LEWIS SPRING HOUSE - January 2, 2024 courtesy of Byrd Lewis Mashburn
Eight Frank Lloyd Wright Sites
Inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List
July 7, 2019 representing all of his life's work!
Inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List
July 7, 2019 representing all of his life's work!
SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE
is working to maintain, acquire, restore and complete
LEWIS SPRING HOUSE,
the ONLY private residence designed by
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
and built in FLORIDA,
for public and private uses.
We need YOUR help to do this.
is working to maintain, acquire, restore and complete
LEWIS SPRING HOUSE,
the ONLY private residence designed by
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
and built in FLORIDA,
for public and private uses.
We need YOUR help to do this.
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN 2024 + other things of interest
WINTERSTONE PRODUCTIONS
PRESENTS...
NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2023 UPDATE...
May, June, August, September of 2023: We've been been getting a lot of big important things done out here. Thank you most recently to (1.) Frost and Elliot, needed work where a big oak came down; (2) Jimmy, tank removal: (3) Michael, furnace removal; (4) Seth and Joel, plumbing repair. Someday the plan is to have a ground source heat pump where the furnace was. These use to be called "water source" heat pumps. They are currently rated as the best environmental and longterm economical heating/air solution that exists. The Federal Government and some States are giving grants and tax incentives to encourage people to go to this all-round best route.
NOVEMBER 2022 UPDATE...
Timing of work to be done depends on so many different things, of course. We waited as the company who planned to do the masonry repairs could fit us in and then they had to wait on our changing circumstances. We each ended up waiting about the same amount of time as it turned out. We also decided to repair the washhouse by replacing missing blocks and other masonry repairs. The washhouse has been repaired and repointing on its north wall and looks like a solid building again, we're happy for that good work by George Speers Masonry.
APRIL 2022 UPDATE...
In January we removed the tarps on the core above the roof and in the January photos above, you can see some of the wonderful fireplace downstairs in Spring House in use. Joel, from Ohio, a Spring House Institute board member, flew down to help get some projects done around the house. We worked on the inside of the core walls so we could remove the tarps and use the fireplaces again; Joel moved the mailbox to the upper gate where it's in a better place. We found out after talking with the mason from Tallahassee who will do the work we need, that repointing the core wall above the roof may not handle the issue we are were planning on doing it for. We have decided the treat the wall with Armor SX5000 WB. It will seal the block, won't change the color or the look. We are letting the block get good and dry before the first application. Lots of work has been done on the grounds; new Autumn Embers azaleas on the west and east side of the house; a witch hazel from Leon County on the west side not far from the lower gate that is a beautiful tree in the fall. There is a new sunshine ligustrum on the terrace, and several orange gladiolas that are doing well. Come for a visit, there's water in the pond! As soon as conditions are right, geologist/hydrologist from Jim Stidham, Inc are coming with a hand auger to see if they can hit water to bring our spring back. Imagine! Water again, all the time and a full pond, running water all the time! It's a huge part of the experience at Spring House, the reason our parents' bought this property, and what the house is named for.
JANUARY 2022
THANK YOU to all of you who visited on personal tours in 2021! You have been fantastic! YOU helped so much keep our spirits flying and we are looking to get major things accomplished in 2022! Spring House Institute is looking forward to having the repointing around the core above the roof done this month! We will be able to use the fireplaces again! We are also counting on you, however you pray, to do that with us, asking to get the water back in the spring, with a full spring fed pond and stream again! We will keep you posted as things progress! Here we come 2022, we are ready for you!!
AUGUST 2021
Spring House Institute is waiting for an estimate and schedule on repointing work to be done on the core above the roof. The tarps will no longer be needed and the fireplaces will be usable again, an important step. ~ Letters have been sent to our city and county governments on the national importance of Lewis Spring House in American architectural and civil rights history, including the importance of the SPRING that the land was purchased for, that Frank Lloyd Wright used in designing elements of the house, and that the house is named for. ~ The turnout on personal tours has been amazing in spite of COVID. We have been very careful and following CDC guidelines since the beginning of the pandemic and will continue to be. Thank you to all of our visitors so far this year and to those who will support us in the future. You are helping this project move forward. It won't happen without your support.
JUNE 2020
Spring House Institute began conducting Personal Tours only, in June 2020. We require all visitors who haven't been fully vaccinated to wear masks and practice social distancing. We have successfully conducted countless personal tours since then with no record of anyone visiting who tested positive before or after a visit to Lewis Spring House. We will continue operating in this manner indefinitely. Our 2nd Sundays tours are no longer available but we are beginning to have small work groups of volunteers who would like to be part of this important and historic project.
APRIL 12, 2020
Spring House Institute has suspended 2nd Sunday Public Tours. You may have a personal tour. Go to our Personal Tours page under TOURS. Thank you for your support since 2013.
MARCH 23, 2020!
4th Saturday SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE has suspended workdays until we feel we can safely resume them and under what conditions because of the coronavirus. Thank you for your support since 2013.
MARCH 8, 2020!
2nd Sunday Public Tours at SPRING HOUSE people visited from Jacksonville, FL; Pensacola, FL; Havana, FL; Yuma, AZ; Sydney, Australia; Rochester Hills, MI; Libertyville, IL; Lakeland, FL; Ft. Walton Beach, FL; Port St. Lucie, FL; and many good friends and neighbors from Tallahassee! Thank you for your support on this beautiful day!
FEBRUARY 22, 2020
4th Saturday SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE had workday from 10 to one David came from Thomasville and we cleared a big patch of coral ardisia headed down the hill to the pond. We removed two wax leaf ligustrum that were keeping the sun away from a pretty cedar; probably a generation from the cedars George, George Edward and Van planted when the Lewises first moved to Spring House.
FEBRUARY 9, 2020!
2nd Sunday Continuous Public Tours at SPRING HOUSE –A beautiful day for our 2nd Sunday Tours on 2-9-2020! Thank you to our interesting and attentive visitorsfrom Lancaster, OH; Port St. Lucie, FL; Atlanta, GA; Concord, OH; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Noblesville, IN; Terre Haute, IN; On The Road In America; Greenville, FL; and many friends and neighbors from Tallahassee! We appreciate your support of this historic preservation effort!
JANUARY 25, 2020
4th Saturday SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE workday Frost and Elliot cut back the elephant ears that had gotten hit by two freezing nights and thankfully the leaves will come back; they were so huge and beautiful all of last year. They also loaded up a wheelbarrow and put new chips down on the terrace. Victoria weeded the pink muhly grass bed on the north side of the house. Thank you all for your help. We moved the wandering gentile back on the terrace which is like any weeding, it always has to be done. Thank you!
JANUARY 12, 2020!
2nd Sunday Public Tours at SPRING HOUSE Thank you to all of our great visitors today, our first tours of 2020! We so appreciate you who came out on this gray and humid day from Miami Beach, FL; Panacea, FL; Sopchoppy, FL; Crawfordville, FL; Alligator Point, FL; Goshen IN; Atlanta, GA; Odessa, FL; Thomasville, GA; Havana, GA; Bainbridge, GA; Los Angeles, CA; and friends and neighbors from Tallahassee! And thank you to our local paper, the Tallahassee Democrat for all the mentions in the TLH Calendar this week!
May, June, August, September of 2023: We've been been getting a lot of big important things done out here. Thank you most recently to (1.) Frost and Elliot, needed work where a big oak came down; (2) Jimmy, tank removal: (3) Michael, furnace removal; (4) Seth and Joel, plumbing repair. Someday the plan is to have a ground source heat pump where the furnace was. These use to be called "water source" heat pumps. They are currently rated as the best environmental and longterm economical heating/air solution that exists. The Federal Government and some States are giving grants and tax incentives to encourage people to go to this all-round best route.
NOVEMBER 2022 UPDATE...
Timing of work to be done depends on so many different things, of course. We waited as the company who planned to do the masonry repairs could fit us in and then they had to wait on our changing circumstances. We each ended up waiting about the same amount of time as it turned out. We also decided to repair the washhouse by replacing missing blocks and other masonry repairs. The washhouse has been repaired and repointing on its north wall and looks like a solid building again, we're happy for that good work by George Speers Masonry.
APRIL 2022 UPDATE...
In January we removed the tarps on the core above the roof and in the January photos above, you can see some of the wonderful fireplace downstairs in Spring House in use. Joel, from Ohio, a Spring House Institute board member, flew down to help get some projects done around the house. We worked on the inside of the core walls so we could remove the tarps and use the fireplaces again; Joel moved the mailbox to the upper gate where it's in a better place. We found out after talking with the mason from Tallahassee who will do the work we need, that repointing the core wall above the roof may not handle the issue we are were planning on doing it for. We have decided the treat the wall with Armor SX5000 WB. It will seal the block, won't change the color or the look. We are letting the block get good and dry before the first application. Lots of work has been done on the grounds; new Autumn Embers azaleas on the west and east side of the house; a witch hazel from Leon County on the west side not far from the lower gate that is a beautiful tree in the fall. There is a new sunshine ligustrum on the terrace, and several orange gladiolas that are doing well. Come for a visit, there's water in the pond! As soon as conditions are right, geologist/hydrologist from Jim Stidham, Inc are coming with a hand auger to see if they can hit water to bring our spring back. Imagine! Water again, all the time and a full pond, running water all the time! It's a huge part of the experience at Spring House, the reason our parents' bought this property, and what the house is named for.
JANUARY 2022
THANK YOU to all of you who visited on personal tours in 2021! You have been fantastic! YOU helped so much keep our spirits flying and we are looking to get major things accomplished in 2022! Spring House Institute is looking forward to having the repointing around the core above the roof done this month! We will be able to use the fireplaces again! We are also counting on you, however you pray, to do that with us, asking to get the water back in the spring, with a full spring fed pond and stream again! We will keep you posted as things progress! Here we come 2022, we are ready for you!!
AUGUST 2021
Spring House Institute is waiting for an estimate and schedule on repointing work to be done on the core above the roof. The tarps will no longer be needed and the fireplaces will be usable again, an important step. ~ Letters have been sent to our city and county governments on the national importance of Lewis Spring House in American architectural and civil rights history, including the importance of the SPRING that the land was purchased for, that Frank Lloyd Wright used in designing elements of the house, and that the house is named for. ~ The turnout on personal tours has been amazing in spite of COVID. We have been very careful and following CDC guidelines since the beginning of the pandemic and will continue to be. Thank you to all of our visitors so far this year and to those who will support us in the future. You are helping this project move forward. It won't happen without your support.
JUNE 2020
Spring House Institute began conducting Personal Tours only, in June 2020. We require all visitors who haven't been fully vaccinated to wear masks and practice social distancing. We have successfully conducted countless personal tours since then with no record of anyone visiting who tested positive before or after a visit to Lewis Spring House. We will continue operating in this manner indefinitely. Our 2nd Sundays tours are no longer available but we are beginning to have small work groups of volunteers who would like to be part of this important and historic project.
APRIL 12, 2020
Spring House Institute has suspended 2nd Sunday Public Tours. You may have a personal tour. Go to our Personal Tours page under TOURS. Thank you for your support since 2013.
MARCH 23, 2020!
4th Saturday SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE has suspended workdays until we feel we can safely resume them and under what conditions because of the coronavirus. Thank you for your support since 2013.
MARCH 8, 2020!
2nd Sunday Public Tours at SPRING HOUSE people visited from Jacksonville, FL; Pensacola, FL; Havana, FL; Yuma, AZ; Sydney, Australia; Rochester Hills, MI; Libertyville, IL; Lakeland, FL; Ft. Walton Beach, FL; Port St. Lucie, FL; and many good friends and neighbors from Tallahassee! Thank you for your support on this beautiful day!
FEBRUARY 22, 2020
4th Saturday SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE had workday from 10 to one David came from Thomasville and we cleared a big patch of coral ardisia headed down the hill to the pond. We removed two wax leaf ligustrum that were keeping the sun away from a pretty cedar; probably a generation from the cedars George, George Edward and Van planted when the Lewises first moved to Spring House.
FEBRUARY 9, 2020!
2nd Sunday Continuous Public Tours at SPRING HOUSE –A beautiful day for our 2nd Sunday Tours on 2-9-2020! Thank you to our interesting and attentive visitorsfrom Lancaster, OH; Port St. Lucie, FL; Atlanta, GA; Concord, OH; Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Noblesville, IN; Terre Haute, IN; On The Road In America; Greenville, FL; and many friends and neighbors from Tallahassee! We appreciate your support of this historic preservation effort!
JANUARY 25, 2020
4th Saturday SPRING HOUSE INSTITUTE workday Frost and Elliot cut back the elephant ears that had gotten hit by two freezing nights and thankfully the leaves will come back; they were so huge and beautiful all of last year. They also loaded up a wheelbarrow and put new chips down on the terrace. Victoria weeded the pink muhly grass bed on the north side of the house. Thank you all for your help. We moved the wandering gentile back on the terrace which is like any weeding, it always has to be done. Thank you!
JANUARY 12, 2020!
2nd Sunday Public Tours at SPRING HOUSE Thank you to all of our great visitors today, our first tours of 2020! We so appreciate you who came out on this gray and humid day from Miami Beach, FL; Panacea, FL; Sopchoppy, FL; Crawfordville, FL; Alligator Point, FL; Goshen IN; Atlanta, GA; Odessa, FL; Thomasville, GA; Havana, GA; Bainbridge, GA; Los Angeles, CA; and friends and neighbors from Tallahassee! And thank you to our local paper, the Tallahassee Democrat for all the mentions in the TLH Calendar this week!
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Registration # CH31369
A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.