In the 1960s, Ed Delbridge walked into Dan Burton Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and there he met Larry Schumaker. Little did they know at that moment the influence the interior designer would have on the look of many buildings in Rutherford County, starting with Delbridge Photography Studios.
Look Schumaker up on the internet, and you will find next to nothing, yet his talent and eye for design can be found in everything from some of the most lustrous homes in the county to the new judicial building in downtown Murfreesboro. To rectify the lack of information about this talented man and trusted design advisor, a group of his Murfreesboro friends wrote a book in 2018 to commemorate his life and capture his work for future generations to study. They put a copy of the book – Lawrence H. Schumaker Influenced the Look of Rutherford County — in Linebaugh Library’s Historical Research Room.
“Probably no creative endeavor shapes our social environment and our image of the world more intimately or more profoundly than architecture,” said Lisa Sims in the book. “Larry Schumaker, as much as anyone, has helped mold and design the creative atmosphere we enjoy in Rutherford County.”
Born in 1938 in Dearborn, Michigan, Lawrence Henry Schumaker was raised in Booneville, Missouri and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1962 with a degree in Interior Design. After graduating from college, he studied architecture at Di Centro Internazional, Di Studi De Archetectura, and De Andrea Palladio Architecture in Vicenza, Italy; the Instituto Di Archetectura in Venice, Italy; and the Ecole Americane Des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France. His study in Europe would influence his work the rest of his life.
Upon his return to the United States, Schumaker moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he initially worked for Evelyn Anderson Antiques, and then began his work at Dan Burton Interiors before moving on to do his own thing.
His female friends all talk about his “Cary Grant” good looks. Tall and dignified, his signature look became pressed jeans and cowboy boots with a cashmere sweater thrown casually over his shoulders, giving him a dapper insouciance, and yet he was always polished and professional. The men remember him driving up in a red Corvette.
“His entrance made quite an impression on us three girls,” said Debbie Delbridge Cope in the book. She and her sisters grew up with Schumaker sitting at their kitchen table while working with her parents on their many projects together, including a number of family businesses and homes. He became a part of their family over a course of 50 years.
All of his work is heavily influenced by the Italianate style, giving it an old-world feel. His love for curves and rounded archways can be seen in most of his designs, from the conversion of the old Linebaugh Library into the current Center for the Arts to the Murfreesboro Civic Plaza to the Murfreesboro Bank and Trust Company building that eventually became the recently closed Truist.
“Larry Schumaker had a terrific organizational mind as well as an impeccable choice of designs and furnishings,” according to conversations with Robert B. Mifflin, son of former Murfreesboro Bank and Trust (MBT) Chairman Al C. Mifflin, and former State Representative John Hood, who was the MBT Marketing Director. “He took employee suggestions on job functionality and placement, but the majority of the interior [design] decisions were made by Larry.”
He also loved sweeping curved staircases that are found in many of his designs, including the Adams home on Mooreland Lane, the former Edward Seddon residence on what is now Veterans Parkway, the Patel home, and the Swanson penthouse located in the NHC building in downtown Murfreesboro.
“Larry was the professional responsible for making our façade and our interiors blend into Rutherford County’s late 1800s Public Square as he had done with the City Hall,” said Andrea Loughry in an article on Murfreesboro Voice. “Our townhouse was his last interior/exterior design project before his health declined and he shifted his focus to visual arts.”
He moved to Lascassas in 2011, where he focused on watercolors. He had a showing at the Center for the Arts in 2014 with a reception planned by Loughry, Lucinda Lee and Wren Jones, but his love project was the home in Nashville that he shared for years with his life partner, and eventual husband, Larry West.
Called East Ivy, his home was a mansion built in 1867 by Senator Henry Cooper. Schumaker grew it to a 44,000-square-foot walled compound filled with lush gardens, elegant pools and grand rooms, including a marble-floored atrium. Located in Historic Edgefield, it was turned into an event venue in 2017, the same year that Schumaker passed away.
“…[On] May 21, 2017 he took his last breath in my presence,” said West in the book, “A true light of my life went out.”
He left behind him a heavy influence on the look of downtown Murfreesboro, as well as stylish homes, beautiful gardens, sculpture, watercolors and family and friends who are proud to have known him and had the opportunity to enjoy his talent.
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