Saving the Alfred Browning Parker house
Randolph C. Henning, an attorney from North Carolina grew up in Broward County, he is architect Alfred Browning Parker's biographer and author of "The Architecture of Alfred Browning Parker: Miami’s Maverick Modernists." Mr. Henning worked on this book for 18 years, having it finally published in 2011, the year Mr. Parker passed away.
Mr. Henning sent an email to the owner of the Dora Ewing house at 3701 El Prado Boulevard, MST Corp. TRS MST 72880 Land Trust is listed as the owner.
"It is my opinion that to deny the magnitude of this architectural gem as a locally significant and important resource is unquestionably and completely unfathomable. I urge you to reconsider and first recognize and secondly acknowledge that the Ewing home is truly special. Knowing its potential eventual disposition, while wrong on many levels, should not muddy the waters at this juncture. I am hopeful that you will step up and proudly provide this creation its rightful place and due respect," wrote Mr. Henning.
The Dora Ewing home was designed by Alfred Browning Parker in 1955 and is written about in Mr. Henning's book.
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Mr. Parker was fond of both Mrs. Ewing as well as the house he created for her. It is a single house designed for a single person. It had one single sheet of preliminary drawings and one single sheet of working drawings, and basically contained a single piece of built-in furniture. Mrs. Ewing loved to make pottery and ceramics and she did that in the house among the beautiful tree canopy that surrounded the house.
Mr. Parker loved the house among all of the work he did in his lifetime. The house received a lot of press at the time.
"Too much of Parker’s work has been demolished. Many of his extant works have been significantly altered due to ill-conceived and unsympathetic remodeling and additions by mindless and insensitive owners or left to ruin by uncaring or unknowing owners," says Mr. Henning.
The owners have a meeting in January about the house. Hopefully they will realize the gem they have and they will save it from demolition.
posted by Tom Falco at 4:00 AM
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3 Comments:
Putting aside whatever significance the house may or may not have, the reality of the situation is that someone else owns it now and they can do with it as they see fit - given that they're not breaking any local regulations. Perhaps Grove residents should start pooling their money together to buy local houses whenever they hit the market. Or maybe declare every single house older than 19xx as historic.
Some who think they are natives may now understand how the real natives felt but that would only be a fleeting thought and selfish destruction will persist.
I grew up in south grove in the 50's and 60', the Ewing house was always my favorite, I am in shock as to its future. So many notable houses have been bought on speculation and allowed to go to ruin, no law against that but, someone should be looking out for these houses.
Cathy Eignus
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