Blog
Things I don’t know at Taliesin
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn 1929, architect George Kastner (then, a draftsman for Frank Lloyd Wright) took the photograph at the top of this post. It looks west in Taliesin’s Garden Court while stonemasons lay the wall that separates this courtyard from the other courtyards at Taliesin. This wall insured that this courtyard would be free from cars. Today […]
What about the second wife?
Reading Time: 7 minutesYah: what about Wright’s second wife? That’s who I’ll write about today. Years ago, a group of coworkers and I performed a comedy sketch for a friend who was leaving Taliesin Preservation. At one point in the sketch, we voiced common questions that folks ask when they take a tour. Among them were “how tall […]
What a Way to Begin
Reading Time: 5 minutesHave you ever fallen in love with someone, were blissfully going along, and then something crazy-bad happened outside of the control of either of you? It’s a test of your mettle. And you move beyond your fears and you are all there for that person. It’s a test and you’ve aced it, in this binding […]
Buying the hill
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn April 10, 1911, Frank Lloyd Wright’s mother, Anna, purchased 31.65 acres of land in The Valley south of Spring Green, Wisconsin. The land, which cost $2,274.88, is where Wright would build the structure you see in the photo above: his home, Taliesin. I put a copy of the warranty deed below: Warranty deed is […]
I was a slush pile reader
Reading Time: 4 minutesI regret that I did not get practice in the field of professional writing while I was in college getting that degree. I had one great writing teacher who required us to read and critique submissions by our classmates. I still remember Dennis saying that, “you will write nothing worth a damn until you are […]
My March Madness
Reading Time: 4 minutesI took this photograph in March 2005, showing the landscape around Taliesin. There was a work-related reason for it: I was photographing the area to see how it matched up with Taliesin in 1911. That’s because the Wisconsin Historical Society had just won the bid for “The Album” of Taliesin photos from 1911-1912 (here’s my […]
Missing Wright
Reading Time: 7 minutesThree photographs of statues at Midway Gardens, by Frank Lloyd Wright. The statues represent “attributes of geometry”1. The two photos on the left show the Octagon statue, and the one of the right shows “cube”. I took this photo from my copy of the “Wendingen”. No: not missing the man, Frank Lloyd Wright. I’m talking […]
Wright called it the Water Garden
Reading Time: 6 minutesLooking west at the Taliesin residence in September 2005. I took this because I figured I should have at least one nice photo of Taliesin and the pond. The pond at Taliesin that is.1 Wright created this pond by building a dam on the north side of the Lowery Creek in 1911-1912. Here is a […]
Taliesin Kitties
Reading Time: 5 minutesPhotograph of future architect (then apprentice) John Lautner (1911-1994) and wife Mary Faustina Roberts Lautner (“Marybud”, 1913-1995) standing at the southwest corner of Taliesin’s hill crown. Behind them is the chimney that served the dining rooms of the Taliesin Fellowship and the Wrights. I wrote about this space, here. The photo was taken by apprentice […]
Things I learned at Taliesin
Reading Time: 6 minutesTo know why the top of the post says the number “42”, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. I know these things – through my work at as the Taliesin historian, when I worked in the Taliesin tour program, and/or I answered weekly questions in the “Hey Keiran” feature. You’ll see […]
