Yesterday for my dad’s birthday, my parents and I toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s home in Spring Green, WI. It was such a neat experience that I wanted to share it here with you! Here’s all about our day visiting Taliesen!
This home is in Spring Green, WI, which is considered Wright’s Childhood home. As we learned on the tour, he actually built this home to escape to with his mistress! I’m excited to read about his personal history in this book. **post contains affiliate links**
The entire home was made of up cozy rooms with low ceilings, which would open into grand spaces. I’m only 5’9″ and at points my head was inches from the ceiling! Everything from the farm buildings to the residence is connected making up 24,000 square feet! It was built in 1911 and was the first home with running water and electricity in the whole area. Wright lived here the last 40 years of his life, even after it burnt down twice and a servant killed seven people here!
Wright’s goal was to “frame” the landscape, which he did excellently. The landscape surrounding Taliesen was so gorgeous that looking out every window was like looking at a painting.
In his design the aesthetic was always the #1 priority, even over function. He did things like avoid using gutters so that he could enjoy the icicles in the winter. He also loved using windows at corners in the house, to keep the panoramic views wide open. If you’re considering a visit to Taliesen I highly recommend it! We did the “two hour house tour” but there’s also a grounds tour and a “four hour tour”. Someday I could see going back for one of those!
Back in June we toured Wright’s Burnham Block of American System Built homes in Milwaukee which was also really interesting! For anyone who is a fan of design or architecture I highly recommend this as well!
Now that I’ve toured two of his homes I can’t wait to see more of them! Hopefully this Fall I’ll be able to see his Oak Park Home and Studio! Even if you never tour a FLW home, I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our tour!
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Did I read this correctly? This was built in 1911?!!! What a departure from every farmhouse being built at that time. I did not know that this is where he spent the last 40 years of his life! I know that a woman whose husband was a Norwegian immigrant architect worked with him at some point in time. And that he built a house in our town too. But he built houses all over the USA so wouldn’t that be a nice geographical road trip for your family? Kids, I’m planning to see a FLW house here, here, and here. Now let’s plan what we shall do that you’d also like to see and do nearby!!! You’d see the USA!!! On this house……I was amazed that everything connected. What a huge space!
I visited Taliesin on one of many work trips to Madison and it was such an inspiring and interesting tour. The rolling countryside around there is gorgeous! Thank you for sharing!