Hi, my name is Stephanie and I'm a serial hobbyist.
It's no secret that I'm slightly quirky. For example, I go through phrases of being obsessed with different movies, music, activities, etc. An excellent example of this is when I discovered the pop supergroup ABBA at the age of twelve years old. Much to the chagrin of my parents, that's all I listened to during the summer of 1996. I even wore heavy blue eyeshadow and clear lipgloss to pay homage to my favorite Swedish sirens.
Someone should have stopped me.
But the summer of 2017 will always be remembered by those who know me as the summer of Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Who? This guy. He's arguably one of the most famous American architects with a career spanning over seven decades. He designed some of the most memorable homes in American history like the Fallingwater house in western Pennsylvania. And if you ask me, Fallingwater looks like it'd be a good set for Twilight-type movie. Not that I'm a fan of the Twilight series but I was talked into seeing the first movie. Too much uncomfortable eye contact for my taste but the film's art direction was on point.
Falling water photo credit: wright-house.com
So why FLW? Well, it all started when I fell down an internet rabbit hole one night and found out that there were thirty-two different Frank Lloyd Wright houses in the state of Michigan. I made a pact right then and there that I would see them all. I even pinky-sweared with myself to seal the deal (stopping just short of a spit handshake). That same week I traveled to the closest FLW masterpiece to me: the Smith House (1949) in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Turns out this home was owned by schoolteachers, Sara Stein Smith and Melvyn Maxwell Smith and was later sold to the Towbes Foundation. P.S. house tours are now available through the Crankbrook Art Museum if you are ever in the area.
The Smith House (1949)
Next I stopped to see the Schaberg House (1950) in Okemos, Michigan on my way to Lansing. Now this one is pretty interesting because I actually have a personal connection to this house. It's kind of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon but for Frank Lloyd Wright. Donald and Jerry Schaberg were business partners with my grandfather and together they built a business in Lansing called Heart Truss. Unfortunately both of the Schabergs have since passed but my grandfather is still on the board of advisors. Anyway, the house no longer belongs to the Donald Schaberg family but I decided to stop by anyway. The house was pretty well secluded and a result I didn't get any blog-worthy photos, so I'll just leave you with this photo of the Schaberg brothers and my grandfather doing business-ey things instead.
Photo credit: sbcmag.info
The third house I've marked off my list is the Meyer May House in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1908) - which also offers tours but as luck would have it, not on the day I went. This house is quite different from the other two houses in that its from a different era of Wright's work. Both the Smith and Schaberg houses were examples of his Usonian ideal (which aimed to build quality homes for the American middle class). The Meyer May House is an example of his prairie school homes which typically have flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, horizontal lines and windows grouped in horizontal bands. This house was commissioned by the president of May's clothing store, Meyer S. May. Restoration began in the mid-eighties and tours began the year after completion. Like the Smith House, I plan to go back to take the tour.
The Meyer May House (1908)
Here's a list of all the FLW houses in Michigan. (props to Frank Lloyd Wright Sites for putting together this list which I totally stole like a thief in the night)
1894 - GEORGE BLOSSOM SUMMER HOUSE
1897 - GALE SUMMER HOUSE
1902 - ARTHUR HEURTLEY SUMMER COTTAGE
1902 - WALTER GERTS COTTAGE
1902 - GEORGE GERTS DUPLEX
1905 - GALE COTTAGES
1908 - MEYER MAY HOUSE
1910 - AMBERG HOUSE
1916 - ERNEST VOSBURGH HOUSE
1916 - JOSEPH BAGLEY HOUSE
1936 - ABBY BEECHER ROBERTS HOUSE
1939 - GOETSCH-WINKLER HOUSE
1940 - GREGOR AFFLECK HOUSE
1941 - CARLTON WALL HOUSE
1947 - AMY ALPAUGH STUDIO
1948 - ERLING BRAUNER HOUSE
1948 - ERIC PRATT HOUSE
1948 - DAVID WEISBLATT HOUSE
1948 - ROBERT WINN HOUSE
1949 - SAMUEL EPPSTEIN HOUSE
1949 - ROBERT LEVIN HOUSE
1949 - JAMES EDWARDS HOUSE
1949 - MELVIN MAXWELL SMITH HOUSE
1949 - WARD MCCARTNEY HOUSE
1949 - HOWARD ANTHONY HOUSE
1950 - WILLIAM PALMER HOUSE
1950 - CURTIS MEYER HOUSE
1950 - DONALD SCHABERG HOUSE
1953 - LEWIS GODDARD HOUSE
1955 - TURKEL HOUSE
1957 - CARL SCHULTZ HOUSE
1959 - ERIC BROWN HOUSE
1959 - INA MORRIS HARPER HOUSE