Frank Lloyd Wright, 1904

Lamp was a childhood friend of Wright. This brick house is a forerunner of Wright’s seminal “A Fireproof House for $5000” published in the April 1907 issue of Ladies Home Journal. It is speculated that some of the details of the house betray the influence of Walter Burley Griffin, who was in Wright’s office at the time. The roof garden was enclosed as a playroom in 1913, and has subsequently been remodeled as a separate apartment, with attendant (and ugly) stairways and fire escapes.

Photographs courtesy of Jack Lesshafft.

References
• Visser, Kristin. Frank Lloyd Wright & the Prairie School in Wisconsin. Madison, Wis.: Prairie Oak Press, 1998 (Second Edition), p. 131-33.