Wright experts announced on Tuesday that McQuillen's Madison, Wis. home was in fact an American System-Built House, part of Wright's effort to develop and market well-designed homes at a more affordable level, according to the Associated Press. The house, located less than a half-mile away from where Wright went to school, is one of only 16 ever built and 14 still standing.
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"It's pretty exciting, I've got to tell you. And pretty overwhelming," McQuillen said. "I didn't know it was a Frank Lloyd Wright home and had no imagination it would be."
While there was speculation McQuillen's house was a Wright home, it was only confirmed when Mary Jane Hamilson, a Wright scholar, found a 1917 Wisconsin Journal newspaper advertisement by a Madison building company offering Wright's American System-Built Homes. That same company was listed on the building permit for McQuillen's home, which indicated it was building a spec house.
The house hasn't always looked as pristine as it does today. Originally built in 1917, the house had fallen into disrepair. When McQuillen purchased it for $100,000 in 1989, it was in such bad shape that a tree was growing through the roof of the garage. But McQuillen and her family undertook a massive refurbishing, helping restore the historic house. The retired teacher said that the news makes her investment in the home more than worth it.
"It does feel like a reward, a vindication that when I saw the house and could see beyond the disrepair that I knew there was something substantive," she said. "The house really spoke to me."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.