Skip to main content

Frank Lloyd Wright House

Here in our little area of Alabama known as *The Shoals* is a treasure built by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Rosenbaum House, finished in 1940, is one of Wright's Usonian houses. The Rosenbaum family lived in it until 1999 when they sold it to the city of Florence and now you can tour it. I've been wanting to do this ever since we moved here two years ago. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to; however, last week when my husband's sister and her husband were here he was able to take them. It had been a busy morning and I really needed to stay home so Mr. B could nap--and of course the nap won out! But Vince took some great pics and told me all about it (which only makes me want to see it more!). So I thought I would share a little with you about it.

The Rosenbaum House

the kitchen (enlarged in 1948)

Wright did not believe in putting lots of things in your home. He was into efficiency: not much closet space, tiny kitchens, lots of built in storage and the doorways into the bedrooms were only 20" wide. He spent quite a bit of time in Japan and the influence is definitely seen in his designs.

the sons' bunk room

He used a lot of glass, brick and natural material that left almost no need for any other interior decor. The whole house is a work of art, even down to the carved light covers.

the living room

the living room

The Rosenbaum family even agreed to let Wright design most of the furniture in the house. I found it very interesting that practically everything inside the house is made of plywood. Apparently he loved it--since plywood was the newest thing at the time. The guide said that when he loved something he used it everywhere, then when he moved onto something else he rarely used the previous obsession again.

the study

Wright designed the Usonian house to be affordable for the middle-class and $7,500 should have covered the cost for this home, but the Rosenbaums had spent $14,000 by the time they moved in. The house was originally 1,540 square feet, with an additional 1,084 square feet added in 1948. When the last remaining family member living in the home sold the house to the city, it was completely deteriorated and had nearly been torn down. The city of Florence raised $540,000 to restore it completely.

my brother-in-law & sister-in-law, Jason & Alicia

You can read more about this beautiful home here and here.

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...
Read more

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while.  It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it.  However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it.  Plus it's a little bulky.   When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it!  It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make.   I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course.  They  have these little wooden door hangers for .79.  I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each.  I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing.   I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had).  Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...
Read more

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...
Read more