Frank Lloyd Wright

Dr. Toufic H. and Mildred Kalil Residence, Manchester, NH (1955) (S.387)

My Story of Building Dr. Kalil’s House in Manchester, NH.
Written by Paul Beaudoin as told to him by his father-in-law John Martineau, January 2007.

My name is John Martineau, and I have lived in Methuen, MA all my life. As a young man I was learning the masonry trade and was employed by Carmen Palermo. I joined a fellow classmate, Louie LaTullipe, who was already employed as an apprentice. During 1953 (1955), the contractor was contacted by Dr. Kalil to build a new type of concrete house, in Manchester, NH, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The style of this house was called Usonian. We worked on this house for over two years.

The first time I went to the job site the foundations had already been poured. We were starting to do the walls, which were special custom made blocks. The forms for the blocks were made by a local welding shop. The blocks were poured by Duracrete. All of the electrical outlets and other utilities needed to be considered for each of the blocks. Frank Lloyd Wright’s designed called for two foot square blocks, a very common theme in all his houses. One very critical mistake that was overlooked was that when the forms were made, they were made to exact dimensions, with no consideration made to take into account the mortar joints, or any “out-of-square” that occurred during the pouring of each block.

Mr. Palermo was the type of contractor that had a very “can-do” attitude. As he started to take his measurements, he quickly realized that because of the accumulated tolerances, the blocks were going to quickly make the walls too long. Also, none of the horizontal or vertical joints were going to line up.

An engineer was making monthly visits to check on the progress. After obtaining approval from the engineer, a jig was made to shave all of the blocks down to a more accurate working dimension. Mr. Palermo devised a jig that consisted of two engines with giant grinding wheels that sat on either side of a roller conveyor. Each block had to be passed through twice for all four sides to be ground evenly.

As the walls were being built, all of the electrical wiring had to be run at the same time. Now, Mr. Palermo was not an electrician, but he knew enough about wiring to get it done. He stated that “if we couldn’t figure it out, we could go to the public library and find out how”. The wiring was a very long process. Each wire had to be brought up through the wall as the wall was being built.

The pouring of the colored concrete (red) floors, uncovered other new problems. Every time we tried to cut the joint lines, (to create the two foot square symmetrical pattern), the stone aggregate would poke through destroying the smooth trowel finish. We needed to get approval from the engineer to cut the joint lines with a diamond saw blade after the floor cured.

The roof took an unbelievable amount of labor to complete. Each of the blocks had to be kept square to each other, proper height from the floor, and perfectly level. Each of the blocks had to be supported until after each of the two rods was inserted. Each of the blocks weighed between 180 and 220 pounds, depending if they were solid or with an imbedded pattern.

Each of these blocks was wheeled up a ramp to the roof. One guy would balance the wheel-barrel and the other guy would pull the wheel-barrel by rope.

The roof also had a cooling feature that allowed the roof to be flooded to keep the house cool in the summer. The corners of the roof had a drain plug to retain the water, but allow an overflow to drain. After the blocks of the roof were completed, a fiberglass blanket was laid down for water proofing. This was a new type of material that was being used, for the time.

We were unconvinced that the roof of the carport would be able to withstand the load of holding itself up. The carport roof was cantilevered with a trussed rod support system. We were very unsure to step on the carport after it was done.

After the fireplace and chimney were completed, there appeared to be some kind of a draft problem. We needed to insure that the flue linings were correctly sealed. I volunteered to be lowered down into the chimney by rope. Where I trowel sealed all of the flue linings. I didn’t leave any “gifts”, though. The real problem was that the house had been designed and built too airtight. So tight that no draft could be created for the fireplace.

Sadly I never got to see the house completed. A special Philippine mahogany was ordered for the finish woodwork.

In my opinion, the house was not very economical or very practical.

Written by Paul Beaudoin as told to him by John Martineau, January 2007. Paul, John’s son-in-law, lives in Derry, New Hampshire with his wife Phyllis, the daughter of John Martineau. John lives in Methuen, MA, is currently enjoying his retirement and still lives in the house that he built in 1963.

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