| The House Wright Hated | |
|
He became famous for his Prairie and Usonian houses. But the Tudor style Nathan G. Moore House proved to be a lifelong embarrassment for Frank Lloyd Wright. |
|
When Frank Lloyd Wright was young and still struggling, he designed a house in a style which he found "repugnant." To make matters worse, he did not build it once, but twice: First in 1895, and again in 1923 after a fire destroyed the upper floor. Both times, he gave the house decorative half-timbering, a steeply pitched roof, intersecting gables, complex medieval chimneys and other ornamental frippery.
The house was for his friend Nathan G. Moore, who lived near the Wrights in Chicago's Oak Park neighborhood. Mr. Moore wanted to hire the young architect who was already attracting attention. But Mr. Moore did not want his own home to be too controversial.
"We don't want you giving us anything like that house you did for Winslow," Moore told Wright. "I don't fancy sneaking down back streets to my morning train just to avoid being laughed at."
Next page >
The Shocking Winslow House > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
Frank Lloyd Wright Directory >
Cast your vote
Frank Lloyd Wright® and Taliesin® are registered trademarks of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation.
