The exterior form of the Rule house, so Wrightian as a Fireproof-like cube even if Wright never got around to those extruded-cube corners, has echoes further downstream -- or perhaps upstream, as it turns out.
In H Allen Brooks, "The Prairie School" (Norton Library; 1972), we are given a brief look at Percy Dwight Bentley, La Crosse, Wisconsin's native son and Wright-influenced architect. Bentley (1885 - 1968) "never
personally knew or studied with any of the prairie group. He represents, therefore, a fascinating example . . . of how a man could be inspired by the work and assimilate enough knowledge and feeling for it to
successfully adapt it to his practice."
Bentley attended Wesleyan University and then Armour Institute. "Our mornings were spent at the Art Institute and afternoons out at Armour. The office of Frank Lloyd Wright was in a building almost directly a-
cross Michigan Avenue from the Art Institute so I frequently saw him with his cape, cane and low crowned broad brim hat. Louis Sullivan . . . was in an office not far from Wright's." This would have been c. 1907
or -8.
"I became very much indoctrinated with both (Wright and Sullivan), so when I opened my office in La Crosse it plainly showed in most of my work, which was mostly residential."
Brooks: "The 1910 Edward C Bartl house . . . is perhaps Bentley's first executed work; its antecedents and inventiveness combine to make it a fascinating design." Brooks goes on to mention, first, the Fireproof
House of Wright, and also, in re the pointed glazed prow which so well lights the stair, the Magnus house of Robert C Spencer. Jr.
Further: "One is tempted to ascribe the corner piers (of the Bartl house; see below) to a knowledge of Griffin's Gunn and Rule houses[,] yet Bentley's design is earlier . . ." Brooks mentions also a "huge, arched
brick fireplace" and "delicate leaded glass covering numerous built-in cupboards and cabinets."
Brooks continues: "The Bartl house is a small (covering 35 x 30 feet) yet choice design. Soon after completion it was visited by Mr and Mrs Alois Fix who were determined to have a house like those being published by the Midwest
school." The resulting house was found via Google, today; it's a handsome brick and plaster, hipped-roof complex on a nice corner lot across from a park.
