LIVING SPACES

By Nancy Peevy | Photos by Chadwick Turner

Living in a Work of Art

These homeowners restored a historic mid-century modern home in Fayetteville

Jud and Ashley Lee always wanted to live in a mid-century house in Fayetteville.

“I had friends who lived in E. Fay Jones homes in Fayetteville, and I spent time in some of them as a kid, and they always made an impression on me,” he said.

After graduating from college, Jud and Ashley married and moved to California for about 10 years. When they moved back, they wanted to find a historical, mid-century modern house in Fayetteville where they could raise their four boys.

“Of course, there aren’t very many of them, and we have four boys between the ages of 13 and 7, with 9-year-old twins,” Ashley said. “So, that makes it even more difficult because there’s just not very many of them that will accommodate a family of that size.”

When a friend mentioned that a mid-century modern house on Arlington Terrace in Fayetteville might be for sale, they were immediately interested.

The house was designed by Herb Fowler, a founding faculty member of the University of Arkansas’ architecture program and a professor there for 37 years. According to Fowler’s 2008 obituary, his style was “shaped by the clean functionality of the International Style and the sensitivity to site and materials espoused by Frank Lloyd Wright.”

The natural wood and stone in the home were “all very much influenced by E. Fay Jones and the work he did,” Jud said. “We just love that style and the way the materiality flows from the outside in. There’s a grand stone entry that comes from the street up to the house, and it flows directly into the house. This is a style of house we’ve always wanted, and it’s in our neighborhood that we love living in, and the previous owners had four kids. It was perfect in so many ways. So, we bit the bullet, so to speak, and decided to take it on.”

The house still had much of the original appliances, carpet and décor. For the remodel, which took three years, the couple turned to Lucas Cooper with Reform Design because he’d worked on restoring other mid-century modern homes.

The renovation included all new windows, adding a primary suite bathroom, converting the previous primary bath into a walk-in closet, pushing out an exterior wall in the kitchen, adding a kitchen island and new kitchen cabinets of African mahogany, taking out walls between the kitchen, dining and living rooms to open up the space, putting in a wet bar between the living and dining rooms, and adding a Jack and Jill bathroom downstairs. All the wood floors and wood slatting throughout the house were refinished, and stone floors were added throughout the main floor.

The house has a lot of built-in features, including window seats and small wooden light fixtures in the living room and bedrooms. There are also wooden light fixtures that hang dramatically from the ceilings in the dining room and entryway.

“The house is such a unique thing in and of itself that it’s not something you want to overly decorate,” Jud said. “So, furnishings are fairly minimal; even our dining room table came with the house and was designed by Herb Fowler.”

One special feature of the home that reflects Jud’s family heritage is a collection of benches and stools designed by Fayetteville native and renowned architect Edward Durell Stone. They were manufactured by Fulbright Industries, a furniture manufacturing company in Fayetteville in the 1950s. The pieces were given to Jud’s grandfather, who was the company’s manager.

On one of the steepest streets in Fayetteville, the Lees’ house is built on the grade of the hill, with the downstairs of the house almost underground. Since the house is on the top of the hill, the views out the windows are striking and different in each room. “Out of our primary bedroom window you can see Springdale, and you can see I-49 out of the living room windows, and from the front of the house you can see Old Main and downtown Fayetteville,” Jud said.

The Lees wanted to make the house something that fits their family. “It’s the type of home we always wanted, and everyone in our family has their own space,” Ashley said. “The kids love it.”

The house also fits the Lees’ lifestyle, Jud said. “We entertain a lot, so I think it was important that we opened up things on the main floor because that made it really conducive to entertaining.”

Though the remodel was a long process, Jud thinks the house turned out to be phenomenal. “It’s kind of like living in a piece of art,” he said. “It’s a really unique home, and we absolutely love being here.”