John Shearer: Original Frank Lloyd Wright Homeowner Gerte Shavin Dies

  • Friday, May 15, 2020
  • John Shearer
Frank Lloyd Wright home on Missionary Ridge
Frank Lloyd Wright home on Missionary Ridge
photo by John Shearer

Gerte Shavin, who along with her late husband, Seamour, hired renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design their longtime home on Missionary Ridge, has died.

 

Her son, David, sent an email that she died early Friday.

 

He added that he believes she was the last living original owner of a Wright home anywhere who was still in possession of the residence.

 

A full obituary on Mrs.

Shavin was to be sent out by Heritage Funeral Home in Chattanooga, but David added that she will be buried alongside her husband in the Workmen’s Circle Cemetery in Chattanooga.

 

I had an opportunity to interview Mrs. Shavin several times over the years, and always found her receptive to talking about the home.

 

The first time I talked with her was in 1987, when I worked at the Chattanooga News-Free Press. Interested in historic architecture, I had heard that a home on Missionary Ridge was designed by the noted architect Mr. Wright, who was known for his unique style that took into account architectural lines and getting the structures to fit their landscape in a complementary and aesthetically pleasing way.

 

So, I got up my nerve to call the Shavins after finding out they were the owners, and Mrs. Shavin graciously invited me in her New York-raised manner to come visit their residence at 334 N. Crest Road.

 

They said they had bought the lot in the late 1940s and were planning to use a local architect, but he moved out of town. They decided to go to the library to look for information on other local architects, but while there they also came across some of Mr. Wright’s works.

 

On a whim, they decided to write him to at least see if he could recommend any area architects whose style was similar to his.

 

Although they were just admittedly a middle-class family with a limited home construction budget, to their pleasant surprise, he wrote them back with a recommendation of an architect – himself.

 

They ended up spending some brief time with him at his Taliesin home in Wisconsin, and Mrs. Shavin recalled the experience pleasantly in 1987.

 

“We were apprehensive but within a minute or two he put us at ease, because here was a man who was living the kind of life he wanted to and creating things. He had no airs or pretensions and put you at ease,” she said.

 

Although Mr. Wright was still a busy man, he eventually after some additional communication – and a little prodding -- drew the plans for a Usonian-style home of medium size and cost. He never came to the Chattanooga home during or after construction, they said, although they did work closely with one of his apprentices as the home made of Crab Orchard stone and Louisiana cypress took shape.

 

I had enjoyed my visit that first time with Mr. and Mrs. Shavin and hearing their knowledge and Mr. Shavin’s suggestion not to just write facts about the home but what I saw in an artistic sense. And to an observer, that included how part of the home uniquely runs down the east side of Missionary Ridge.

 

Fifteen years later, in 2002, after I started contributing some stories to chattanoogan.com, I remembered that the home was turning 50 years old. So, I called the Shavins on the phone again and went by and did another story at their invitation.

 

About that time, I knew a young woman from my church who was studying architecture at the University of Tennessee, and I told her I had previously interviewed the owners of the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Chattanooga. I ended up getting a tour for her and her mother a few months after that story ran, and Mrs. Shavin was again a great host as I accompanied them.

 

And then in 2011, after Mr. Shavin had died in 2005, I contacted Mrs. Shavin one more time just to get an update on the home, and she graciously talked with me for a few minutes. She was living with a grandchild by then in the home, and I think in later years she had seen an increase in requests for tours of her house, etc.

 

To my knowledge and from what she told me, she had tried to honor most of those requests when she was able.

 

I am not sure if a whole lot had been written in the local newspapers about the Wright house before I wrote that story in 1987. But after my two later stories in chattanoogan.com remained in Internet-land, I would occasionally get an email from someone – often from some city like Atlanta – wondering how they could go about getting a tour of the home.

 

I would usually pass along her public phone number and even called her once or twice after someone went so far as to ask me to help set up a tour. In recent years, knowing Mrs. Shavin was getting into her 90s, I just encouraged the one or two people who later emailed me to try writing her at the North Crest Road address.

 

Although all my dealings with her were just regarding the unique home in which she lived, she had a helping manner, I could tell, and I am sure that manifested itself in other areas of her life.

 

In his email on Friday, her son, David, tried to pass along some positive words about her as well and how the family hopes her friends celebrate her life.

 

“Her favorite sermon in recent years was on the concluding lines from Keats' ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ – ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know,’ ” he said.  


“Her idea of a memorial would be for those who knew her to spend a few moments reading and reflecting upon that poem.”

 

* * * * *

 

Below are links to the two previous stories written in chattanoogan.com on the Shavin family and their Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home:

 

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2002/12/17/30352/Frank-Lloyd-Wright-House-On-Ridge-Turns.aspx

 

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2011/2/11/194451/Gerte-Shavin-Still-Enjoying-Frank-Lloyd.aspx

 

* * * * *

 

Jcshearer2@comcast.net

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