I am an architecture nerd.
Shocking I know. But when I like something I tend to nerd out.
From Art Deco to Mid Century Modern to Modern— I love to look at old houses and read histories and look at their influence in contemporary builds.
In that exploration I discovered Frank Lloyd Wright and an obsession was born.
When I take trips I check out any FLW houses around. I’ve seen several in Minnesota, Kansas, Bartlesville and the one in my home town— Westhope.
Construction started on it in 1928. Commissioned by his cousin Richard Lloyd Jones. (Jones was the publisher of the now defunct newspaper' ‘Tulsa Tribune.’
I’ve driven by it numerous times, been obsessed with it forever and never been in… until now.
Tulsa Tours did a few special tours and I finally got to go inside this gem.
It carries the traditional FLW stamps of Asian influences, natural materials, LOTS of windows. And it’s been renovated in the last decade or so after falling into disrepair.
The infamous office is also gorgeous. I’ve heard the story about it as long as I can remember.
During a rainstorm in Tulsa the roof of the house (a flat roof) started leaking. Furious Jones called up is cousin and said something to the effect of the roof is leaking on my desk.
Frank replied “Then move your desk.”
Here’s that gorgeous office now.
So let me bring this entire post back to books.
Years ago I read this beautiful novel about a tragic love story in FLW’s past.
Loving Frank tells the story of his love affair with Mamah Borthwick Cheney. They met when he designed a home in Chicago for her and her husband.
They fell in love and left their spouses for each other.
Nancy Horan is a former journalist from Oak Park, Ill. (Frank lived their and designed an entire neighborhood it’s quite lovely to tour).
She wrote a well researched historical fiction novel about their love affair.
“I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.”
So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.
Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably to this novel’s stunning conclusion.
Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.
It ends tragically, the real story an horrific thing I’d seen featured on Unsolved Mysteries long before my FLW obsession.
(I have always had a True Crime obsession obviously.)
While Frank was away travelling and worker on Taliesin went on a spree and killed Mamah, her children and a few other people that worked on the property— seven people total.
Here’s a non-fiction book about the incident and the impact it had on FLW.
Her ashes are in a stone in the foundation of Taliesin after it was rebuilt.
There’s also an opera about FLW and Mamah that I saw at Philbook YEARS ago.
So I was very excited to go into Westhope and see a home from early in his career. A home with a personal tie to a man I feel like I know from reading about him and exploring his works.
There’s no plans for any tours coming up, but if they open it back up I highly recommend going.
And for sure reading about Mamah.