Waking Up My Wright Eye

© Mark Hertzberg (2023)

My Wright eye has been dormant for a long time. It finally woke up today, as I finish my 13th Road Scholar Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin tour as their step-on guide and “expert lecturer.” I generally look for photos other than just literal pictures of Wright’s work.

I join the tours when they get to Racine from Chicago on Wednesday, and continue with them in Milwaukee, Madison, and Spring Green through Saturday morning. It is always a challenge to find fresh photos at places I have visited so many times, especially when each stop is always at the same time of day. This time I took no photos Wednesday or Thursday. It took spectacular fall colors today – Friday – when we got to the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison to bring my camera back to life.

Then it was on to Jacobs 1. The bonus for our tour guests, which we did not tell them about in advance, was that there was a good chance that Jim Dennis, steward of the house since the 1980s as well as Bill Martinelli would greet us, and that Jim would welcome them into his home:

My first picture at the Taliesin estate after lunch was not of a Wright building…it was of the trees in front of Hillside Home School:

I found new angles for photos of the drafting studio, including the sadly empty drafting room and the Romeo and Juliet windmill:

And then it was on to the Holy Grail for our guests, Taliesin itself:

If you know me well enough you know that I cannot go to Taliesin without a visit to our dear friend Minerva Montooth. Today was no exception:

Links:

The Road Scholar trip:

https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/22976/architectural-masterworks-of-frank-lloyd-wright

Unitarian Meeting House:

https://fusmadison.org/welcome/meeting-house/

Taliesin:

https://www.taliesinpreservation.org

Minerva Montooth:

https://wrightinracine.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/the-marvelous-minerva-montooth/

Please continue to scroll down for previous posts.

 

 

Writing Wright with Light, Part Two

Photos © Mark Hertzberg

This is the last day of the Road Scholar Frank Lloyd Wright trip which I am accompanying. Today I found myself looking at shapes in the six Wright sites we visited. I relied on memory to try to not repeat photos I have taken in the past. I was challenged to turn this post into a “Where Was I When I Took This Photo?” game rather than caption photos as I normally would. The photos are presented in the order in which we visited the sites. The answers are at the bottom.

Site A:

Site B:

Site C:

Site D:

Site E:

Site F:

Answers:

A: Jacobs 1 House – The odd shaped bricks are attributed to Wright reportedly having his apprentices use bricks taken from the SC Johnson Administration Building. There are 200 shapes of bricks in the Administration Building. B: Unitarian Meeting House C: Wyoming Valley School D: Hillside School E: Hillside Drafting Room F: Taliesin

Thank you to Taliesin Preservation for greeting us at the Visitors Center with this sign:

Scroll down to see yesterday’s “Writing Wright with Light” post, and previous blog articles.

Newly Documented Wright ASBH in Madison

Photos and text (c) Mark Hertzberg 2015

A press event Tuesday October 6, 2015 sponsored by Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin announces the documentation of the house at 2107 West Lawn Avenue in Madison as another one of Wright’s American System-Built houses. This is the second discovery of a newly documented Wright ASBH home this year. The other is in Shorewood, a suburb of Milwaukee. The house is an ASBH Series AA model.

Linda McQuillen purchased the house in 1989. The entry is on the left side, as visitors approach the house. The porch to the left and the room to the right (built as an open porch, enclosed by a subsequent owner) are 1924 and 1927 non-Wright additions. The house was painstakingly documented by Madison-based Wright scholar Mary Jane Hamilton over two decades with assistance from many sources, including Mike Lilek. Lilek has overseen the restoration of Wright in Wisconsin’s ASBH properties on W. Burnham Street in Milwaukee and led the documentation of the Shorewood house with the assistance of other Wright scholars.

Hamilton chats with Nathan McQuillen, who grew up in the house. Her meticulous documentation was displayed on four poster boards on easels. 

Hamilton explains that only the right hand built-in hutch in the diminutive dining room is original. The room was originally the kitchen. The hutch at left is in place of an original door.

The original hutch has doors with the same leaded-glass pentagon seen in many windows of the house.

The dining room leads to the living room. The fireplace at the left side of the living room is not original.

The sun room from one of the 1920s additions is now an office, south of the living room.

A basement crawl space below the addition shows the original and added foundation walls.

Part of the authentication of the house as ASBH comes from the joists being 24″ apart, as was customary in the ASBH homes, as opposed the conventional 16″ measurement.

There are three bedrooms upstairs. Two are shown in their entirety, the third is depicted by the narrow broom closet.

The entrance to the house, on the south side, away from the street, has one of Wright’s characteristic wood screens outside the door. The front door knob and lock are original to the house.

The north (left) and east sides of the house. The fireplace is a recent addition. The street is to the left.

The east side, with its 1920s porch addition, off the master bedroom:

This is a view of the house from the street. the door is on the left or south side:

McQuillen is interviewed by journalist Doug Wahl of Madison’s Channel 3 television station.

Preview Screening: Pedro E. Guerrero on PBS American Masters

(c) Mark Hertzberg 2015

Dixie Legler Guerrero remarked “Everyone I know in Wisconsin is here!” as she surveyed the auditorium at Monona Terrace in Madison Tuesday evening September 1 for the premiere Wisconsin screening of “Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey.” Guerrero (1917-2012) was Wright’s favorite photographer. The auditorium was filled for the screening which was part of Monona Terrace’s Wright Design lecture series. The screening was also sponsored by Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin wrightinwisconsin.org

Dixie Legler Guerrero, left, greets Effi Casey before the screening. Tim Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandson, is at right.

Minerva Montooth, left, and Dixie Legler Guerrero chat at the reception after the screening.

Guerrero’s work is on permanent display at Monona Terrace:

Guerrero and Dixie Legler Guerrero at the annual Wright birthday dinner at Taliesin in 2011 and 2012:

The show, part of PBS’ American Masters series, airs Friday September 18 nationwide.