The Sucher house
“THE SUCHER HOUSE”
The beautiful Sucher House….located in one of the most fabulous locations of all the Mushroom Houses……. atop a hill overlooking beautiful lake Michigan. Its also I would have to say, one of the most expensive of all the Mushroom houses simply because of the property, amount of land, and the expansive design.
The Sucher House was built in 1949 by Earl Young. He was commissioned to do this house by the Sucher family who also owned “Speedway 79” gas and oil at the time. In other words, they were not hurting for cash. This was a BIG job for Earl Young and probably his biggest money making house commissioned at that time. I think that made him a tad nervous….also considering the owners told him to go ahead and do whatever he wanted with little input on what design they wanted. In other words…he wanted to nail it as these were high profile clients!!
I was told he was having trouble coming up with a design as many artists do at one time or another. He stood back on the road looking out over the property, and suddenly realized he was looking at 1/3 grass, 1/3 water and 1/3 sky. So….he designed the whole house around thirds and thus eventually calling it the “Thirds House.”
If you notice there are 3 chimney’s, 3 windows in front, the house is built in 3 main sections AND…its on the 1/3 farthest side of the property before it was split up. You can also see right through the house from the street to the water in certain parts of the house!! The most important is when you are actually inside this beautiful house and look out….you see a 1/3 water, 1/3 grass and 1/3 sky making it fit perfectly organic in its true form.
Always the naturalist, he wanted to incorporate his surroundings so he made a massive rock wall around the property that represented water. Its up and down, in and out and even has waves crashing at the ends. He then added huge over-sized planters at the tops of the fence posts. Earl loved flowers and tried to encourage owners to plant them in clever ways. He knew if he built planters…the owners would have no choice but to plant big, beautiful flowers and that would just enhance the house. There are lights at the bottom of the posts which still work to this day. Back in 1949….it was state of the art to have lights at the bottom of your fence posts. I feel like he tried to add some modern touches to this house in more ways than some of his others and adding glass block lights was definitely one of them.
The Suchers eventually sold the house and whoever bought it….ended up selling off the last section of the property and dividing it into 2 lots. 2 New homes were built and they kept the rock wall ( thank goodness) but unfortunately, look nothing like Mushroom Houses.
The new owners also own the big white house next door. Their last name is Bolthouse and they were actually farmers at one time from California and invented the baby carrot of all things!!
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns and as always….book a tour to hear and see in person!!
Visit www.MushroomHouseTours.com to book your tour or call 231-445-0770
