touring james taylor's childhood home: morgan creek, chapel hill nc

A rare opportunity! The NC Modernist Homes organization was granted permission to open up this home to a limited number of people for just 4 hours before being sold to another private owner. Dave & I were lucky enough to go. The house sits on 25 acres of fields, woods and of course, Morgan Creek runs through the property close to the house. So open, airy, and designed for living, it's perfect for unbounded creativity to flourish here. Big spaces, glass walls, lots of room to breathe. George Matsumoto was the original architect on the project, following an idea that mother Trudy Taylor had in mind for her family, but George was fired at some point and went on to give up home design for a while exclaiming that he was "not wanting to work for the wives." The job was finished up by John Latimer, who also has some acclaim. The property also holds Kate's playhouse, a guest house where the two older boys lived when they were a little older, and an artist studio for Trudy. Outside wood is cypress, interior wood is cherry and floors are oak. This was the home of Isaac (Dean of the UNC School of Medicine), Trudy and where their kids Hugh, James, Livingston, Alex and Kate grew up.

House front. Notice the glassed walls of the living room. Definitely a room with a view.

Enter the house at the living room, nice-sized covered deck wraps around. 

 Walls are glass on two sides bringing the outside in.

Surrounded by woods and still completely private living space.

Deck outside living room and master bedroom. Bedroom also glassed on this side of the house. Below is a field that runs to Morgan Creek.

Living room. Steps down to dining room. So much room to breathe here. (by the way, everyone had to take their shoes off to walk through, but we were given all the time we wanted to just hang out inside)

Kitchen. Whole front is glassed. Behind me (not shown) more shelves than you can imagine - all open. I want this kitchen! The Taylor kids often gathered to play music here while their mom prepared dinner.

Looking out of a huge kitchen window, towards the guest cottage where two of the older boys had rooms (and common room).

Lower level: 4 kid bedrooms (and 3 bathrooms and a huge shower room). Each bedroom had a double sliding glass door that led to the outdoors. Note the groovy wallpaper.

The guest cottage where the two older boys lived.

Yep...

Railing on the deck outside of the guest cottage:

the kids carved their initials there for posterity.  JT, HT, KT. AT, LT.

Back of the house. This corner shows the master bedroom upstairs, lower floor bedroom and a greenhouse attached to the house.

Up the hill behind the greenhouse is the guest cottage.

Me, back corner of the house.