Background
Both of Jordan's biographers relate a story told by Sid Boyum, which places the inspiration for the house in a meeting between Alex Jordan, Jr. and Frank Lloyd Wright, at some unspecified time apparently between 1914 and 1923. Jordan Sr. drove with Boyum to Taliesin to show Wright the plans for a building, the Villa Maria in Madison. Jordan worshipped the famous architect and hoped for his approval. Wright looked at the plans and told Jordan: "I wouldn't hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop. You're not capable." Fuming, on the drive back on Highway 23, Jordan pointed to a spire of rock and told Boyum: "I'm going to put up a Japanese house on one of those pinnacle rocks and advertise it." Balousek says Wright "apparently didn't forget the incident", noting that Wright "complained publicly to Iowa County officials about the house the Jordans were building" and bought a nearby piece of property, "perhaps as a way to get back at Jordan."
The House on the Rock official website has posted information questioning the legitimacy of Boyum's story for the following reasons:
- The Villa Maria was built in 1923 and designed by well-known architect Frank Riley, not Alex Jordan, Sr.
- Both Sid Boyum and Alex Jordan Jr. were born in 1914 and would have been less than 9 years old when this story was to have happened. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) would have been over 50 years old and unlikely to have known the 9 year old Sid Boyum.
- Frank Lloyd Wright was in Japan working on the Imperial Hotel project from 1916–1922 and would not have likely been in Spring Green when this story was to have happened.
Read more about this topic: House On The Rock
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