Frank Lloyd Wright was a baller
Trip Start
May 24, 2011
1
10
20
Trip End
Jul 10, 2011
What I did
Spring Green, Wisconsin
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Julia is a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan, but fortunately she didn't have much trouble convincing Phil and Team Blonde to join her in visiting Taliesin, Wright's summer home in Wisconsin. According to generally accurate source Wikipedia, "Wright began the home in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, IL home and studio in 1909." Wright built the home because he was having an affair with his mistress, Mamah Borthwick, and neither his wife at the time nor Borthwick's husband would give them a divorce. So, Wright's mom gave him some money and land and told him to build a house out in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin, where no one would bother him. Problem solved.
The house is beautiful and a great example of some of Wright's most well-know architectural themes, including the open rooms with built-in furniture and integration with nature. One hilarious aspect of the house was the fact that Wright, having a huge ego, felt that at 5'8 he was the "perfect" height for a man and therefore built most of the entryways to barely higher than a 5'8 man could walk through. As such, Julia had no trouble walking through the house but most everyone else had a duck a bit walking in and out of doorways.
Long story short, Julia wanted to move in if only it wasn't in Wisconsin. Also, we were the youngest people on the house tour by at least 30 years, which became a pretty typical theme of the trip. This either means we are extremely sophisticated or really nerdy -- you decide.
