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The photograph above looks (plan) south at the hydroelectrical plant at that serviced Taliesin. In today’s post I’ll be talking about when it appeared. 

On Halloween 100 years ago John J. Hoppes, president of the Hoppes Water Wheel Company (Springfield, OH) wrote to Wright:

Dear Sir:-

            We have your order of October 23^rd for two 3 KW. hydro-electric plants, which we appreciate very much, but owing to the fact that we can not get the electric generators in less than 8 weeks it will be impossible for us to make delivery called for in your order.

John H. Hoppes to Frank Lloyd Wright, October 31, 1925. Correspondence ID number: H003A03. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York).

In the next letter, typed on Nov. 14, John Hoppes noted that Wright had made an order (perhaps based on what Hoppes had recommended previously). Then on February 12, 1926, the Hoppes Water Wheel Company sent Wright a 

“bill of lading covering the shipment of our hydro-electric plant, and several parts. This shipment covers the one, five KW unit.“

C.B. Winkler to Frank Lloyd Wright, February 12, 1926. Correspondence ID number: H003A05. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York).

What does this have to do with anything?

This correspondence confirms when Wright was putting in his hydroelectric plant at Taliesin’s dam. Around this time, Wright designed its housing.

That’s the cute little building you see next to the waterfall at the top of this post. 

People love the hydro-plant, with its low-hipped roof and (for a teensy-bit) stucco walls.

Here’s a photo of it from the Wisconsin Historical Society after it lost the stucco:

Photograph taken ca. 1932 by Sherwin Gillett. 

When I first started at Taliesin, we thought Wright added the hydro-plant when he began his home in 1911.

Yet, my investigation of the dam

(which I wrote about in “My Dam History“)

showed the hydro-plant didn’t exist until Taliesin III (a.k.a., following its 1925 fire).

We know that because

Draftsman Kameki Tsuchiura

—at Taliesin in 1924-5 with his wife and fellow draftsperson Nobuko—

took a photo of “Nobu” on top of the dam where Wright later built the hydro-house:

This photo is in the Japanese book on Nobuko: “Big Little Nobu, Right No Deshi Josei Kenchikuka Tsuchiura Nobuko”, p. 88. I’d post a link to the book (and probably buy it) if I could, but it’s not currently available in the U.S. Still, I thought you’d want to see it. 

I showed a photo from “My Little Nobu” once before in my post on Taliesin’s 1925 fire. 

I would have reminded you on April 20 that the fire happened 100 years ago, but dammit, while I was able to give a presentation on it in Madison, I was busy with too much other stuff earlier this year. 

Back to 1925:

I know about the letter from Hoppes Water Wheel Co.

like I know some other things related to Wright and Taliesin: from fellow Frankophiles.

In this case, it’s because Wright-scholar Kathryn Smith gave me the info.

In 2018, she was working on an issue published by the Organic Architecture + Design Archives.

A double-issue, it contains 80 photos of Taliesin taken by the Henry Fuermann and Sons Photography Company. Kathryn and Donald Kalec

former Taliesin Fellowship-apprentice and expert in historic preservation,

assembled the images with explanatory essays published in the issue.

The link to that issue is here because it’s so so so pretty and you should acquire it if you can.

She and I probably got into this conversation because I’d mentioned to her how she had informed me about the Taliesin photographs taken in 1930 by Raymond Trowbridge. As a result, she thought I could check things for them in the article.

Because while both Smith and Kalec have/had a long history with Wright

Kathryn has published multiple books on Wright’s work

and Kalec was important in the restoration of Wright’s Home and Studio in Oak Park

they didn’t recognize the locations of some of Fuermann’s Taliesin photos.

otoh, I could, because old Taliesin photos (along with Taliesin itself) reside in my happy place.¹

While she and I were figuring out when Fuermann’s photo showing the hydro-house was taken (below), 

I took this photo of the Hydro-house on my smartphone because I don’t know if I’m allowed to show the one printed in the OAD Journal. 

Kathryn told me the information on Wright’s acquisition of the hydro-plant. And, a little while later, Kathryn’s photocopies of Wright’s correspondence with the Hoppes Water Wheel Co. showed up at Taliesin Preservation.² 

In case you’re curious:

As long at Taliesin remains a National Historic Landmark,³ you will never see the hydro-plant reconstructed at the waterfall.⁴

First of all, it didn’t exist when Wright died. 

In part because it got washed out a few times.

For example, Fellowship member Priscilla Henken wrote in her diary on June 28, 1943 that:

“… yesterday’s [storm] destroyed our dam—it is now just a brimming creek.”

Taliesin Diary: A Year with Frank Lloyd Wright, by Priscilla Henken (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, London, 2012), p. 187.

Secondly,

While I don’t know if Wright didn’t try to rebuild the hydro-plant after that, he went through the Wisconsin DNR to rebuild the dam in 1946 with three steps along its left-hand side. So it looked then like it does today.

Apprentice Douglas Lockwood took photographs of the dam later in the 1940s:

Lastly, remember that Taliesin’s pond came back online this past summer; so here’s a link to a video on Instagram of the dam’s waterfall!

 

First published October 28, 2025.
I own the postcard seen at the top of this post. I don’t know who the photographer was. They probably took the photo in 1926 or 1927.

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Notes:

1. Amazingly, while looking for something that illustrated “happy place”, like the saying “that’s my happy place”, I stumbled upon this link of a cartoon hyper-music-video that’s like a meta-conversation about sugary advertising for 8-11-year-olds. CAUTION: do not watch if you’re easily distractable… or not. Just keep it away from small children and animals. 
2. Hey, you guys at Taliesin Preservation: the letters should be in the binder of “Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation correspondence” that’s in the Hex Room. 
3. although I don’t know if the existence of the Hydro-plant would figure at all into its status on the UNESCO World Heritage list. That is: you can’t bring it back and retain the NHL status, but could you bring it back and keep the World Heritage status, which covers a smaller area? I don’t know.
4. You might have issues with that, but use your imagination, like others do when we miss things by Wright. Believe me, there’s a lot I’d love to see (or NOT) at Taliesin and I’m not getting what I want, either.