History
The original 1889 structure was quite small. The home was extensively remodeled in 1895, when among other changes the kitchen was enlarged and converted to a dining room, the upstairs nursery was expanded and converted for use as Catherine's dayroom, and the Children's Playroom and a new kitchen were added to the back of the house. A second major addition was made in 1898, when the Studio and Connecting Corridor were built. In the Studio, Frank Lloyd Wright and associated architects like Walter Burley Griffin and sculptor Richard Bock advanced the Prairie School of Architecture and designed many notable structures, including the Robie House, Unity Temple, the Laura Gale home, and the Larkin building. After 1909, the Studio was converted into a residence for his wife and the younger children. Later on, the Home and Studio became an apartment building. In the 1960s it fell into disrepair as the owners began to neglect the property due to financial problems. The longtime roofing company entrusted by Frank Lloyd Wright, Oak Park based Tuscher Roofing took control of the property. In 1974, the structure was handed over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the 13-year restoration began.
The Home and Studio was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and has received the American Institute of Architects' National Honor Award. It is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has been restored, maintained, and operated as a museum by the The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. Every May, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust hosts a housewalk of the home and studio and various private homes.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio is located in one of three historic districts of Oak Park, Illinois. It is specifically found in the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historic District, which includes 27 Wright-designed structures as well as other historical and architecturally significant buildings.
The Home and Studio Museum Shop is currently located in the East end of the building, and carries most of the extensive Frank Lloyd Wright, Prairie and Arts & Crafts related products available at ShopWright.org.
Read more about this topic: Frank Lloyd Wright Home And Studio
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)