Story by Lee Rennick
Photos by Erin Kosko and Lee Rennick

In Venice, Italy there is bridge known as the Bridge of Sighs. There are many stories about this white limestone bridge over the Rio di Palazzo. It offered the last views of freedom convicts in the 1600s saw before being transferred from the interrogation rooms of the Doge's Palace to the prison. In the 1979 movie A Little Romance, a story is told that if a couple kiss in a gondola as they pass under the bridge at sunset, with church bells echoing across the worn cobble stones of the Piazza San Marco, their love will be bound forever. Like the stories of this architectural beauty designed by Antonio Contin, the story of Renaissance man Larry Henry Schumacher is filled with joy and sorrow, beauty and an undying love of architecture. 

Born under the industrial skies of Dearborn, Michigan, Schumaker was raised in Booneville, Missouri. Between his birth in the city and youth in the idyllic countryside, he was inspired to find fascination in the study of interior design at the University of Missouri, in the town of Columbia. While at Mizzou, he served as the president of the student affiliate chapter of the Association of Interior Design (ASID). 

He won the very first ASID Nancy McClelland Scholarship in a national competition as a sophomore in high school, although it was meant for college students, according to his partner and later husband, Larry West. After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1962, he took the reward money – which was a one-year scholarship to study in Europe -- and decided to pursue his interest in art, interior design, and architecture in Italy and France.  His studies took him to Di Centro Internazional, Di Studi de Archetectura, De Andrea Palladio Architecture, and the Instituto Di Archetectura in Vicenza, Italy; and the Ecole Americane des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, France. His study in Europe would influence his work the rest of his life.

“He wandered around there for about a year and then came home and started getting serious about getting busy,” noted West. 

Schumaker’s Influence on the Look of Murfreesboro

The first-time friend Andrea Loughry remembers meeting Schumaker was when he came to the opening of the new Murfreesboro Bank and Trust (most recently Truist) building that had been built on the site of the old James K. Polk Hotel in downtown, just off the square. It was a cold snowy day in 1983. 

“When he walked into the opening reception I was serving at a punch bowl,” said Loughry. “He was like no one I had every met before.” 

Although it had been many years since his extensive travel in Italy, the continentalism Schumaker had picked up on those travels still hung on him, draped like a Roman mantle of elegance and sophistication. He was dressed casually in pressed jeans, loafers and a cashmere jacket tossed over an open-necked button-down shirt which his tall, lanky body wore well. Another friend, Susan Lloyd, described him in the book Lawrence H. Schumaker: Influencing the Look of Rutherford County as “Cary Grant like.”

The bank building is a perfect example of the poetry he could create with his designs, blending the intricacy of the old world and the simplicity of the new. The most striking parts of the design being the double staircases curving up to the offices on the second floor, and the detailed woodwork found in the president of the bank’s office, which was filled with European antiques.

All his life Schumaker was inspired by classic Italianate architecture with its columns and pilasters, arches and vaults, domes and cupolas, and ornate details. No line was curved enough for him. No detail too delicate. He brought his own twist to the enduring influence of Italian architecture and design to Murfreesboro in civic buildings, in businesses and in homes. 

“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 in Influencing the Look of Rutherford County. “He took employee suggestions on job functionality and placement, but the majority of the interior design decisions were made by Larry.” 

Upon his return to the United States from his European jaunt, Schumaker moved to Nashville, because his brother had moved there to work for Ford Glass Company. Initially, he worked for Evelyn Anderson Antiques, and when she retired he began work at Dan Burton Interiors. It was while working with Dan Burton that he designed interiors of homes, businesses, planes and vacation abodes for Nashville’s elite. It was also while at Dan Burton that he initially caught the eye of Ed Delbridge. It was Delbridge who would introduce him to Murfreesboro society, and it was Delbridge who would, in many ways, provide him with the opportunity to take the leap and open Schumacker Interiors in 1972. But it was West who suggested they go out on their own. 

“His entrance made quite an impression on us three girls,” said Debbie Delbridge Cope in the book written about Schumaker by his friends. She and her sisters grew up with him 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. 

“Ed Delbridge thought Larry walked on water,” said West. “Anything Larry said is what went. It was good to have someone with that much confidence in you, but it was all borne out by what Larry produced.”

Schumaker designed the Delbridge home on Minerva Drive, his office building and then the Delbridges worked with him on several apartment buildings. He also designed the Huddleston Oil building on Old Fort Parkway (now a car lot) and several other business projects. 

Perhaps his greatest influence on the look of Murfreesboro today is City Hall. According to Roger Haley’s interview in the book, in the spring of 1988 the city began looking for an architectural firm to design the new City Hall, a new Linebaugh Library and the plaza connecting the two. After two failed ventures with a couple of Nashville architecture firms over a period of a year and a half, the city appointed design committee made an appointment with Schumaker Interiors. The design needed to reflect the look of downtown Murfreesboro, but not compete with the historic courthouse standing in the middle of the square. 

As Schumaker listened to the committee’s needs, desires and style ideas over a three-hour period he began sketching out some design concepts on a pad of paper. At the end of the session, they had a rendering of what the area looks like today. 

“His skill and talent,” Haley added, “left a mark on this community that will continue to be timeless, beautiful  and functional.”

Also in the 1980s, he worked with Delbridge, Joe Swanson, and First City Bank on what is now known as the only skyscraper in Murfreesboro – City Center. 

“The architect, which was one of the big ones out of Nashville, provided plans, but the board didn’t like them,” explained West. “So, Ed called Larry and said, ‘Can you help us? We do not like the plans they came up with, and we do not know why.’ And so, Larry came down and said, ‘here is probably why you do not like it’. He completely redesigned the front of the building, and the planning committee loved it. When they told the architect, the architect had a hissy-fit and didn’t want to work with Larry. Ed said, you work with Larry Schumaker or you don’t do it.”

On the top two floors of the bank building he built Joe and Flo Swanson’s penthouse, where they lived for seventeen years. The penthouse is known for another of his wonderful circular stair cases, which curved from the first floor of the apartment to the second.

“There was a newspaper article when the Swansons moved in because there was a piece of artwork that Larry wanted to put into their apartment, and they had to rent a crane and close the city down to get it up there,” West shared. 

In the late 1990s, his skills were once again called upon to help transform the old Linebaugh Library and former Murfreesboro post office building into the Center for the Arts. John Hood, who was the Chairman of the building committee, tells the story of sitting down with him at lunch one day to discuss the building renovation. As Hood talked, Schumaker sketched out ideas on a paper napkin. 

“The art center folks were going to move in there and they came to me because I was an engineer,” explained Ransom Jones, whose family also worked with and were friends with Schumaker. “They had some columns in there they wanted to remove, and they asked me about the feasibility. Ultimately, the columns were removed. I’m sure that was his request when you went into what is now the auditorium area there were two major columns in there and they wanted to remove them because they were in the way. If you were going to make that into a viewing area with a stage out front, how were you going to look around these columns? So, they were a major obstacle. They finally did it.”

Larry’s last major city related project before he passed away was the new judicial building. He was called in on the “down-low” because they needed some help with the exterior esthetics. He changed the look of the entrance and the top of the crowning cupola.

“What they designed for the top of the new judicial building Larry said looked like a Marathon gas station,” chuckled West. “Once again he had to butt heads with the architects and design committee.”

Many Homes in Murfreesboro Also Have the Schumaker Touch

Schumaker worked on many of the iconic homes that were built in Murfreesboro between the 1970s until the late 2000s. Just about everyone he worked with became a friend. He did design work for both Jennings and Rebecca Jones, and their son Ransom Jones and his wife, Wren. 

“Ransom and I chose Larry Schumaker to help us with our first home on Cherokee Court in Murfreesboro,” Wren Jones stated in Influencing the Look of Rutherford County. “This was after we had met Larry when he worked with Ransom’s parents. Larry worked magic on every house, turning an average home into a beautiful statement. This was a gift that Larry was blessed with; seeing possibilities and making them come to life. Our current home has had several renovations over the years, and Larry did all of them. Larry could visualize something and sketch it free hand on any scrap of paper that was handy, showing you where he was going with an idea.”

He unknowingly did just that for his friend Lucinda Lea. Near the end of his life, Schumaker spent a lot of time painting watercolors. He even taught it to friends. Lea asked him to do a painting of her home. He ended up doing two, one as it looked, and one with a suggestion on how to modify the plantings in the front to offer the home a more dramatic curb appeal. 

“We were so impressed by his suggestion, that that is exactly what we did,” said Lea. “He could just look at something and know what to do to make it better.”

Other homes he worked on include the dream home of Edward Seddon, father of astronaut Rhea Seddon; the final home of Kirby McNabb on Mainstreet; Paul and Tina Patel’s East meets West home; and the palatial home of Andy Adams. This house was used as a location when the television show Nashville was being filmed in the area.

There is a sweet story of his work on his longtime friend Ed Delbridge’s house. For he and his wife Clara’s fiftieth wedding anniversary Delbridge had bought two lots out on the river and had asked Larry to design a house they could move into and retire. 

“Larry worked on the designs and got it all laid out,” explained West. “Ed gave the design to Clara as her anniversary present. Upon opening the plans, she said, ‘I love the house, but I don’t want to live there.’ So, what they did was cut the house in two, pushed the center part of it out and rebuilt the house they owned on Minerva Drive. I don’t think the people who bought it when Ed and Clara went into assisted living did anything to it before they moved in. It was such a classic job.”

One of his last projects was working on the interior design of the townhome of his friend Andrea Loughry and her husband, Ed. 

When Loughry came to Larry, she had an architect, but she didn’t feel that he truly understood the look she wanted. She wanted her home to blend with the architecture of downtown Murfreesboro, both inside and out. 

“Andrea knew what she wanted, and she hired this architect who could do the engineering part,” explained West. “Where they can put a wall and where they cannot, and then she turned the interior over to Larry.”

“The look inside and out is pure Larry,” said Loughry. “He understood exactly what I wanted. He made the home us and at the same time blend with the look of historic Murfreesboro. He worked closely with me for two years adding his touches, especially the mill work. He won an award for his design.”

As he was working on Loughry’s home, his own East Ivy mansion in East Nashville, which had been the love of his life (other than West) since the 1970s, had to be given up. Loughry ended up purchasing two massive chandeliers from Schumaker. He designed the armature of the one now hanging in the entry foyer of the Loughry townhome from one he had seen in New Orleans, and then had it made in Mexico. 

“It is amazing that they made it here in one piece,” explained Loughry. “Trying to find an economical way to transport them from East Nashville, they were brought down in a pick-up truck hanging in two refrigerator boxes.” 

They now hang in the front reception room of the Loughry home, and in their elegant dining room. The table that sits below the one in the foyer was also designed by Schumaker. He had it remade from a table that had been handed down through Andrea’s family, the Chiles. 

“Larry liked to come visit them from time to time,” added Loughry.

Leaving His East Nashville Home

The loss of his East Ivy home was devastating. It was Schumaker’s greatest creation, reflecting his love for the architecture of Andrea Palladio, who during the Renaissance transformed Venetian ecclesiastical architecture with his signature harmonious, light-filled style inspired by classic Roman architecture. Palladio is best known for the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Il Redentore, and he also did renovations to the Doge’s palace.  

“Larry was Palladio,” said West, “and he loved Venice. If you look at the big house in Nashville, you could see the influence. From ‘73 on we worked on that place. We were there for over 40 years. We started out with the big house. There was a little house next door. There was literally a path between the two houses. That was the only property we really wanted, because Larry always had a vision on what he wanted to do with it. And he wanted to put the swimming pool there. So, we tried to buy that and the lady wouldn’t sell it. It sat there for about two years and then it burned. And after it burned it sat there for another year or so. And then we finally got in a position to be able to buy it.”

They were in many ways instrumental in the transition that took place in East Nashville, especially when their attorney, Charlie Williams, moved into the neighborhood with his wife, Carol and their family. 

“When you have two gay guys restoring an old house, it’s expected,” chuckles West, “but when Charlie and his wife, Carol, moved their family over there it brought a whole new stability to the area for the banks. Plus, Charlie was a very good advocate for what the neighborhood should be.” 

Having to move was crushing, but they were embraced by their friends in Murfreesboro and moved to Lascassas. Near the end of his life, Schumaker had several showings of his art, including at Center for the Arts and at The Write Impression for the first Boro Art Crawl. In the end, he came to the area his style has influenced so much.

“You can’t go anywhere without seeing something that he did,” added West.