The hallmarks of its design have become iconic of the architect: clean dividing lines, warm wood tones and an homage to its natural surroundings.
The Louis Penfield House in Willoughby Hills, designed by the famed Frank Lloyd Wright, has become a go-to brag of architecture and Lake County tourism enthusiasts.

Check out a photo gallery of the house
The house is still in the family of Louis Penfield, the Mayfield High School art teacher who commissioned its design by Wright himself.
However, Paul Penfield, Louis son, said it is time to pass the opportunity of owning a Wright home on to another.
I feel its time for someone else to take on that mantle of responsibility, he said.
With his two children living in the United Kingdom and a travel bug of his own, Penfield officially listed the 1955 house, on 18.45 acres and with two other houses on the property, at $1.7 million.
Sitting back from the road about 600 feet, the Usonian Wright house has 1,800 square of living space, three bedrooms and 11/2 bathrooms.
Visitors will quickly notice the thin halls, doorways and staircase, more comfortable for the 6-foot, 8-inch Penfield than for the average person.
The house is small by todays residential standards but has an open feeling with its lofted ceilings and tall, crystal-clear windows that allow visitors sitting on the living rooms unique bank bench to lose themselves in the surrounding nature.
The property has a gas well, eliminating any heating cost for the Penfield House.
The other two houses a cottage built in 1867 and a farmhouse built in 1940 are rented to long-term tenants.
He and his wife, Donna, do not live in any of the houses. In fact, an average of 280 nights a year since 2003, complete strangers have been sleeping in the beds and cooking in the kitchen of the house in which he grew up.
With a two-night minimum, the couple rents the house for $275 a night during the week and at $300 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Guest book entries from all over the world are an indicator of its success.
Thank you for the opportunity to spend time in this wonderful house. Words cannot express the peace I felt here, wrote recent a visitor from Columbus.
Sharing that opportunity meant Paul Penfield restoring the house from top to bottom.
I milled down some cherry wood from the property, he said pointing out the knots and wood grain he made sure to retain when he replaced a damaged kitchen counter top. What I wanted to make certain of is that it looked like it came from a tree.
Wright was known for using materials from the properties on which his houses were built, exemplified in what could be Wrights most famous work Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.
Penfield also rebuilt some of the furniture that now sits among original pieces.
He said he can remember strangers showing up at the property to catch a glimpse of its construction.
He had such a cult following, he said. All I knew is there was a house that was going to be built.
Now the house means a great deal more to him.
He is a Wright admirer himself and has traveled to about 50 other of the architects properties.
When he was 11 years old, in 1957, he met Wright at his winter home, Taliesin, in Arizona.
It was a very exciting but unusual experience, he said, admitting his memories have the added-magic of a childs eye. It was a little like visiting the Emerald City of Oz.
The architects staff would whisper to the Penfield family that Mr. Wright is taking a nap now and hell be with you later.
I seem to remember approaching him down a long hallway and he was seated behind a desk. It seemed like a long and suspenseful walk up to where he was seated, Paul said. But when I went back to visit it years later, it was a small room. But I was a small person at the time.
The family was connected to Wright through the architects secretary, with whom Louis Penfield went to Ohio State.
The thing about Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the many things, is that no one ever had a contract with him. It was all done on a handshake, Paul said. It was all verbal. He never really got around to telling you yes or no until the plans arrived in the mail.
The pilgrimage to meet Wright came upon Interstate 90s threats to slice through the property.
Thats where the idea of a second house on the same property was conceived.
Because the highway was redirected, that second house was never built. However, the plans were drawn and the property is still available and in Paul Penfields name. It is not part of the acreage for sale, although Paul hopes to see the project taken on by someone with the correct mission and finances.
Its Wrights last residential commission, he said of the historic significance.
Wright died in 1959.
It was on the drawing board when he died. The preliminary drawing arrived in the mail the week of his funeral, he said. It would be wonderful for Northeast Ohio to have Wrights last house and put the final stop in his career.
A print of the drawing of that second house, titled the Riverrock House, hangs in the entry way of the Louis Penfield house.
Although Louis Penfield died in March 2003, and his wife Pauline in 1982, framework of his art studio, for which he crafted all the stonework, can still be explored on a walk back to the Chagrin River.
The entire original 30-acre property, in the Penfield family since 1876, is a pop-up history book.
During a stay, or perhaps during purchase dealings, the opportunity is available to see a self-portrait painted by Louis Penfield or look through letters between Penfield and Wrights secretary, Eugene Masselink.
In that collection one can also find a letter to Louis from Wright.
My Dear Penfield: the mysterious and beloved architect wrote, before asking why the family didnt simply move the house since the freeway was planned straight through it.
But enthusiasts might disregard the suggestion and replace it with excitement by imagining receiving a letter ended, as this one is, Sincerely, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Visit www.penfieldhouse.com for more information.

Click your way through an interactive blue print of the house