Tag Archives: Mary Hill

Eighty Five Years of Hardy House Friendship

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© Mark Hertzberg (2026)

I have posted many stories about Anne Sporer Ruetz and her passion for the house she grew up in between 1938 – 1947, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Thomas P. Hardy House south of downtown Racine, Wisconsin. Anne was five when her parents became the second stewards of the house after Hardy lost the house in a sheriff’s auction from the steps of the Racine County Courthouse the year before. Hardy, who was deeply in debt over the house, appealed the sale but the bank prevailed.

We are fortunate that Anne was given a Brownie camera when she was about 10 years old, and enjoyed taking pictures of her home.

Anne wrote “my dream house” on the back of this photo she had taken as a child. She told me that she would sometimes dream that her husband, Russ, bought her the house as a birthday present.

She took many photos of her friends at the house, especially of Mary Johnson who would be a lifetime friend, later as Mary Johnson Hill:

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Karen Cushman, left, and Mary Johnson
Mary fastens her roller skates in front of the wood gates that hung across the entry ways until 1950.

The only furniture that we know Wright designed for the house were the dining room set and beds that were so constricting that Anne and Mary called them the “coffin beds.” Mary graciously drew a photo from memory for my 2006 book about the house:

Mary a frequent guest at the house, is not certain there was paneling on the sides.
Anne celebrated her 14th or golden birthday on Wednesday August 14, 1946. The Racine Journal Times published a photo of the birthday breakfast at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed dining room table in the Thursday August 15 edition of the newspaper. Mary Johnson is the second girl from the right.

Mary, left, and Anne, both 94, visited the house together again this summer. Mary’s daughter, Anne Hill Bird, Director of Outreach and Engagement for the Society of Architecture Historians, sent me this lovely photo:

I wish that photo were the end of the story of this friendship, but it is not. I got this email September 14 from Mary’s daughter:

Dear Mark:   

I wanted to let you know that my mother, Mary Hill passed away yesterday.  She was 94, and recently had a bad fall… We will miss her dearly, but she definitely had a good run, and a fabulous life full of love, family, travel, experiences, friends, significant civic work and lots of laughter.  We should all be so lucky.

I know you asked for permission to publish the image of both her and Anne Ruetz in front of the Hardy House.  I checked with her about a week ago, and she said if Anne was OK with it, she would be fine with that image on your website.   I know she loved participating in your book where she drew the pictures of the “coffin beds” that she and Anne Ruetz had slept in as young girls. 

(I talked with Anne yesterday, and gave her my condolences over the loss of her friend. She looks forward to their friendship being remembered on-line).

Please scroll down for previous posts on this website.

A lasting last word from Gene Szymczak

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(c) Mark Hertzberg 2016

Gene had a very wry sense of humor. I initially did not understand what was his last jab at one section of the World of Wright until he explained it to me. There was quite a kerfuffle on the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s Wright Chat web forum a couple of years ago when I posted photos of the wood gates Gene had made for the entry way of the rehabilitated Hardy House.Hardy Gas Meter Cover 002 LR.jpg

The original gates were taken off by the Archers, the third stewards of the house (1947-1957). I pointed out that the design Gene asked carpenter Chad Nichols to build was Wright’s first gate design for the house, not the simpler one that Wright ultimately executed, shown in a photo by Anne Sporer Ruetz (Hardy House: 1938 – 1947) of her friend Mary Hill putting on her roller skates:LR Gates 035.jpg

Mary Hill and gate.jpg

Oh, how the forum lit up with criticism of Gene for ruining the project and for reinventing history. I wondered in response – as I pointed out that to me the most important thing to consider was that Gene had literally saved the house for another hundred years – if Gene should also be condemned for having a television set and a microwave oven in the house because those weren’t historically authentic either.

Gene was hurt by the blog comments. Genuinely hurt. If you knew him, you would understand his feelings. He was the CEO and president of Educators Credit Union which grew to become a major financial institution in Wisconsin under his stewardship so he was certainly a serious man when he had to be. But he was never too serious. He took umbrage at my photo of him smoking a cigar on the dining room terrace with his brother the day he closed on the house because he though it made him look like a “fat cat.” The dispute reinforced his feeling that some in the Wright World are too serious and judgmental.

He found a way to thumb his nose at them when he commissioned a shield to hide the unsightly gas meter in front of the house (moving it was not a practical option).

Hardy Gas Meter Cover 003 LR.jpg

I didn’t realize until Gene told me with a smile…he purposely designed it as one of the original gates, albeit turned on its side. Here’s to you, Gene! I laugh whenever I think of your joke on what a friend of mine called “Gategate.”

Postscript after reading an email this morning…Full house museum restoration was way out of budget consideration. I focus on Gene having literally saved the house. It was imperiled. I focus on several thousand people having the opportunity to see the house, which had been closed to the public for several decades. Many, many of them expressed their gratitude to Gene. They include recognized Wright scholars. Gene had told me “this is something I could do for the Racine community” when he considered buying the house. Indeed he did, for Racine and for the Wright community, even if not everyone agreed with all of his decisions.